Southwest Georgia Skates petition has increased support to rebuild skate park in Albany

ALBANY, Ga. – Earlier this year, we told you about one young man’s initiative to bring back a skatepark to the City of Albany.

CBS 44’s Brian Roche sat down with him and a few supporters about the progress they’ve made since.

“..People don’t have a place to express themselves and skateboard. I see people in their yards and in the garage trying to skate, and it’s sad that they don’t have somewhere,”

said Alex Ranew, Southwest Georgia Skates.

When we met Alex Ranew in January of this year, he was just getting his campaign to rebuild the Albany skatepark off the ground a month after it had been closed down.

Since then, he’s gained a massive amount of support, to the point where he’s established his cause as a non-profit.

“Really, we’re pushing to get this skatepark built in a quality location as quickly as possible and as professionally as possible,” said Ranew.

A few other skaters who are behind Alex joined us as well to talk about why they’re pushing to bring back the skate park.

“It was it was a complete oversight. We’ll call that on behalf of the committee by not engaging with the public more about it by making the claim that it was in disrepair. I was out there shortly before it was destroyed and again, there were maybe a couple of places that needed patching, but by no means was it dangerous or harmful,” said Adam Inyang, Southwest Georgia Skates.

Alex and Southwest Georgia Skates want the new skatepark to have the same feel as the old one here on East Oglethorpe Boulevard had. That means making sure the new park stays on the east side of Albany.

Alex says he has spoken with City Commissioner, Chad Warbington who has suggested Tift Park on North Jefferson Street…

“But we want the park in downtown Albany, near the river, that is the most iconic part of Albany. Ray Charles Plaza, the (Flint) River, Turtle Park, that’s where people think of when they think of Albany. Nobody thinks of Tift Park,” said Ranew.

And… Southwest Georgia Skates has been in touch with other skating non-profits like the Tony Hawk Foundation with the goal of that new skatepark being a place for growth for many in the Good Life City.

“It’s a place where you’ve repeatedly was it was benefited by unplanned encounters with adults, positive encounters, you know, kids that didn’t have parental support at home. It’s a place that brought the community together,” said Jeffrey Ranew, Southwest Georgia Skates.

The petition for bring back Albany’s skatepark currently has over 1,300 signatures.

Brian Roche reporting.

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