{"id":24473,"date":"2024-12-11T14:51:48","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T21:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-gets-a-grant-to-fund-a-face-lift-of-joe-rowell-park\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:54:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:54:02","slug":"dolores-gets-a-grant-to-fund-a-face-lift-of-joe-rowell-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-gets-a-grant-to-fund-a-face-lift-of-joe-rowell-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores gets a grant to fund a \u2018face-lift of Joe Rowell Park\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A bird\u2019s-eye view rendering of what the Revitalization of Joe Rowell Park project in Dolores will look like. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Friday, Dec. 6, the town of Dolores was awarded a significant sum of grant money from Great Outdoors Colorado to support its Revitalization of Joe Rowell Park project.<\/p>\n

That day, GOCO gave out $8.7 million<\/a> to towns and cities across Colorado to support projects geared toward expanding \u201coutdoor recreation, stewardship of outdoor spaces, organizational planning and capacity, and land conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of that money, Dolores was awarded $776, 845.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a lot of money for a little town like this,\u201d said Dolores Town Manager Leigh Reeves. \u201cIt\u2019s quite a feat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whole goal is to better utilize \u201can underutilized 24-acre park in Dolores,\u201d as explained in the town\u2019s application for the grant.<\/p>\n

To understand how best to use the space, the town consulted its community members.<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Dolores put out a town survey, and its results influenced what the \u201cface life of Joe Rowell Park\u201d will look like, said Jacob Carloni, a member of the Parks Advisory Committee in Dolores.<\/p>\n

\u201cA whole bunch of ideas were thrown out there and the community voted on it. The number one thing that the community wanted to see overwhelmingly was a bike park,\u201d Carloni said.<\/p>\n

Already, there\u2019s $106,762 of funds and in-kind donations to support The Lost Canyon Bike and Skate Park<\/a>, Carloni said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A rendering from the American Ramp Co. of what the Lost Canyon Bike and Skate Park will look like in Dolores. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A rendering of what The Lost Canyon Bike and Skate Park will look like in Dolores. This image includes the bike and skate park and the pump track. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

And of this new GOCO grant money, $475,000 will go toward the \u201call -wheeled space\u201d for skateboarders, bikers and scooterers alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoggy is a big draw, so we\u2019re bringing that down to the kid level,\u201d said Reeves. \u201cIf you drive through town now, you\u2019ll see all these little homemade ramps. I mean, I did that as a kid, make these ramps out of plywood and try not to kill myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The skate park will be a safe place for the 730 kids in Dolores schools to go and play; the town also intends to welcome the greater community to play there, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about Dolores. It\u2019s about the tribe, it\u2019s about Cortez. It\u2019s about bringing kids together,\u201d Reeves said.<\/p>\n

Carloni added, \u201cSkating, biking, scootering \u2026 are super pro-social activities for kids. Being able to do that in a safe, responsible place that\u2019s meant for that is just a really exciting thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a pump track in the greater bike and skate park plan.<\/p>\n

A pump track is a series of rollers and berms where a rider can use their momentum to pump their way through the track instead of pedaling or pushing, Carloni said.<\/p>\n

The town has lined up a contractor called the American Ramp Company to do work on the skate park side of things starting in the fall next year.<\/p>\n

Though there\u2019s $581,762 set aside for the bike park \u2013 the sum of the new grant money and prior donations \u2013 the town still needs $155,000 to make it happen. Plus, it has to raise $225,000 for the pump track, Carloni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds like a pretty high number, like a daunting number, but I think with the amount of passion there is for this project in the community and the support there is \u2026 we\u2019re pretty confident we\u2019re going to get all three aspects,\u201d Carloni said.<\/p>\n

In fact, the most recent grant application was their third try for the GOCO money.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach and every time we failed, we went back to the community and said what new partnerships can we get, and how many more stakeholders can we bring in to be part of this and push for it,\u201d Carloni said.<\/p>\n

He remembered all the organizations who were willing to pitch in, from the Rico Trails Alliance to the Mancos Trails Group to the Ute Mountain Ute tribe to Kokopelli Bike & Board; the list goes on.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the community got hold of this project, what kind of formed organically was a nonprofit that\u2019s called the Lost Canyon Bike and Skate Park,\u201d said Carloni. \u201cThey all pitched in and opened up their \u2026 what are those things that are contacts lists called?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRolodex,\u201d Reeves said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir rolodexes for us,\u201d Carloni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s old school dude,\u201d Reeves laughed.<\/p>\n

Carloni said they were able to raise $30,000 in 35 days for the initial design part of the project, and is confident they can raise the remaining $380,000 to make all three parts of the bike park a reality.<\/p>\n

Though the bike and skate park piece is undoubtedly a big part of Joe Rowell\u2019s face-lift, the overall revitalization project includes more than that.<\/p>\n

It includes two new shade structures around the existing playground, eight benches, three picnic tables, 36 trees with irrigation and 250 yards of ADA compliant walkways to connect the existing playground to the bike and skate park.<\/p>\n

Plus, they\u2019ll add a land acknowledgment plaque in English, Spanish, Din\u00e9 and Ute and outdoor exercise equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have two pieces of equipment, we\u2019ll buy three more,\u201d said Reeves. \u201cAnd Jake will install those.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Fishing is Fun grant from Colorado Parks and Wildlife is also part of this, and it will \u201cenhance the river for better habitat for fish and economic benefit through tourism around fishing,\u201d the town\u2019s application said.<\/p>\n

Reeves said they\u2019ll look for additional grants to hopefully revamp the baseball part of the park, too, with a new scoreboard and lighting.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s really going to do great things for Dolores. It\u2019s pretty cool for a town this small to have parks as amazing as we do,\u201d Carloni said.<\/p>\n

All donations to help Dolores realize this project are tax deductible. And more than just money helps curb costs- labor, time and resources (like asphalt, trucking, boulders, lumber, etc.) all help, Carloni said.<\/p>\n

With questions or donations, reach out to lostcanyonbsp@gmail.com<\/a>, or look at their website online at www.doloresbikeandskatepark.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

half the $776,000 will go toward a bike and skate park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78544,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24473\/revisions\/78544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24473"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}