Hundreds of people attended the grand opening of a new skatepark on Saturday in New Meadows, but it was who was not there that weighed heaviest on most.
New Meadows Mayor Julie Good joined community members in cutting the ribbon on Mehen Memorial Skatepark after more than $500,000 was raised to build the park in honor of Rory and Sara Mehen, who were shot and killed on Oct. 1, 2022, at the Heartland Hotel.
“It’s still bittersweet,” Good told Valley Lookout after her remarks to about 200 people who gathered for the ceremony. “I keep looking in the crowd for those two faces and I think I always will.”
Saturday’s ceremony was followed by Little Ski Hill’s Adams County/Valley County Skatedown, an informal event that opened the skatepark to people of all ages skateboarding and riding bicycles or scooters.
The new skatepark spans more than 7,000 square feet of ramps, bowls, rails and other features designed by Grindline Skateparks, a well-respected skatepark designer based in Seattle.
A custom ramp feature embedded with a red heart represents the Mehens at the park’s southern boundary. A memorial plaque will be added in the future when funding allows.
Grindline was awarded a $530,000 contract to build the skatepark in 2024. The contract was funded by a donation campaign that the Mehens started shortly before their deaths. Volunteers then picked up the project and dedicated it to their memory.
“I know Rory and Sara are here with us right now, and I know they’re so proud of all of you,” said Preston Woods, who delivered remarks on behalf of the nonprofit group formed to manage the fundraising campaign.
“It’s going to be amazing to watch this place kind of take on a life of its own and see what it does for this community down here,” Woods said.
Woods told attendees the fundraising campaign for the skatepark will continue, with additional donations sought for signage and landscaping.
Healing project
The skatepark project has been credited for helping to heal the community following the deaths of the Mehens, who owned and operated the Heartland Hotel.
Woods compared the resiliency demonstrated by the community to skateboarding, while Good, a lifelong New Meadows resident, told Valley Lookout she has never been more proud of the community.
“I watched the people who were hurting the most and struggling the most with the reality of what happened on Oct. 1, 2022, gather together around a vision and a dream that Rory and Sara had started,” she said. “Even in the midst of tragedy, we refuse to let our lives be defined by their final moments, and we refuse to let our community to be defined by that loss.”
Ivan Fazio of McCall was among nearly 200 people who attended the grand opening. Fazio befriended Rory Mehen about 25 years ago and remained close with him until his death.
“It’s just great to see everybody that come together and show the love and put this together for the community to honor Rory and Sara this way,” Fazio said. “It definitely brings up a lot of emotion and a lot of strong feelings.”
Jake Spencer of Boise did not know the Mehens, but made the trip to support the opening of a new skatepark that he said is on par with the Treasure Valley’s best.
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“I grew up in Cascade, so I remember when New Meadows had the wooden ramps,” Spencer said. “So this is a definite upgrade for what was here. It’s a nice, approachable, competitive park.”
Warren Brown legacy intact
The skatepark is built on land once occupied by the Warren Brown Youth Park, which featured wooden skateboard ramps and a concrete pad that in recent years had fallen into disrepair.
Now, the skatepark is part of the Warren Brown Youth Complex, which also includes the New Meadows Youth Center. The name changes were approved earlier this year by the New Meadows City Council.
The land on which the youth center and skatepark are built was donated to the city decades ago by Warren Brown, the founder of Brown’s Industries, which operated the Brown Tie & Lumber Company in McCall. Brown also helped establish Brundage Mountain Resort.
A grand opening was held for the youth center earlier this year, though a remodel of the building is still in progress. Good expects remaining work to be complete by the end of the year. She believes siting the youth center and the skatepark next to each other will increase mentorship opportunities for local youth.
“Kids will be able to not only learn how to skateboard from these people older than them who’ve been around and done things before them, but they also would learn from them how to respect one another, how to respect the park, how to live in community, and how to work in harmony with each other,” she said.
Youth center partially open
Work to remodel the front of the youth center building into a daycare was complete ahead of the current school year. Pre-school programs currently have 22 students, Good said.
The youth center becomes the first dedicated daycare facility in New Meadows. The Meadows Valley School District formerly ran a smaller program out of the school.
“If we didn’t do this, we were going to lose workers. We’re going to lose teachers,” Good said. “It was going to impact our community greatly.”
Adams County currently has a childcare gap of about 60 spaces, according to data from the Idaho Workforce Development Council.
The youth center building was remodeled from a 4,500-square-foot pole barn building that served as the Adams County Recycle Center until 2022, when the recycling collection was consolidated at the New Meadows Transfer Site. The city then purchased the building from the county for $60,000.
The remodel was funded mostly by a $600,000 grant from the state, along with a patchwork of other grants and community donations. Overall, the project is expected to cost about $1.1 million, with the city still seeking the final $250,000 in funding, Good said.
