City officials are hosting a grand opening of the JTNY Power House Skate Park on Saturday. P-J photos by Timothy Frudd

A new attraction in the city is about to open.

City officials will host a grand opening for the JTNY Power House Skate Park, located at 117 Fairmout Ave., from noon-2 p.m. Saturday.

Funding for the project was provided by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and The Skate Park Project in partnership with Kaboom, Built to Play and the city of Jamestown. The Chautauqua Region Community Foundation and SK8 JTNY also collaborated on the project.

After months of construction, the JTNY Power House Skate Park will now offer local residents and visitors a 10,000-square-foot skate park attraction. City officials have described the skate park as a “welcome amenity” for the community, as well as a “desirable destination” for people visiting the region.

The JTNY Power House Skate Park was named after the site of Jamestown’s trolley system power station.

According to a news release, “The skate park will continue in bringing movement, motion and energy to the space.”

The grand opening will also feature Off the Stick and Foodies Sweet-N-Eeats’ food trucks.

Ellen Shadle, city principle planner, said people attending the event Saturday can expect a “big celebration.”

In addition to the food trucks, the grand opening will feature a skate jam and remarks by local community leaders.

“We have a number of speakers opening with some remarks about the process and the road to this celebration from our city leadership, our funders and our council leaders to give a few words as to how this process has gone and how we’re finally able to kind of tie it up with a bow quite literally,” Shadle said.

The JTNY Power House Skate Park was designed after the Grindline Skate Park in Seattle. Shadle said the expertise of the Seattle-based designers was especially beneficial because the designers were able to design the skate park with materials needed for a “cold weather” skate park better than other designers. Due to the harsh winters in the region, the skate park required special materials to provide good maintenance and ensure a durable community resource.

Shadle said one of the best parts about the new skate park is its size.

“We have a 10,000 square foot skate park,” she said. “In terms of skate park standards, in some ways, that’s kind of a baseline for a ‘destination’ worthy skate park.”

Shadle explained that during the planning process, it was determined that Jamestown would “really benefit” from the massive scale of the new skate park.

Due to the size of the skate park, the city, along with the design firm, was able to create a mixture of different “level appropriate” bowls. Shadle said the layout of the skate park was specifically designed to accommodate skaters of all experience levels, while providing a “connected” experience.

“The bowls are also designed to have connectivity between them, so it’s not as though you have to leave the beginner bowl and then make a re-entry into the intermediate bowl,” Shadle said. “They’re all connected. An advanced skater can start at the beginner bowl and make their way through each bowl as they make their way down towards the more advanced bowl.”

Another design feature that makes the JTNY Power House Skate Park unique is the crescent wrench feature located at the top of the skate park. Shadle said the crescent wrench was not merely designed as an art piece but also as a functional part of the skate park that will allow skaters to “drop off into the bowl.”

The city administration hopes the skate park will have a positive impact on the community. Shadle believes the “destination worthy” skate park will encourage economic development in the city by attracting visitors to the area. She explained the skate park will also provide the community with the ability to host various skate park events.

“The community I think will take the lead on that,” she said, “so those won’t necessarily be city sponsored or city driven events from the administration, but those will be things that the city will certainly welcome in terms of benefiting the community.”

Based on what city officials have observed at the skate park, Shadle said she expects a large turnout at Saturday’s grand opening. She explained the city Parks Department will have representatives at the event to help direct parking and the department is working to make sure parking signs are clearly visible for the event.

“We want to encourage people to resist the temptation to park as directly close to the skate park as possible,” she said, “because there’s going to be lots of walkable places from McCrea Point Park and some other places that are being utilized for parking for the event.”