Blue Lake gets $402,000 donation to finish bike, skate park

Blue Lake’s long-delayed bike and skate park got a $402,000 boost from the Brunson Family Fund, with $150,000 now earmarked to finish the Taylor Way project and $50,000 set aside for skating rink improvements. The remaining $202,000 would go into an endowment expected to generate about $10,000 a year for the city’s parks department.

The donation was presented at the June 23 Blue Lake City Council meeting. City parks director Emily Wood called the gift unexpected and said it arrived when the bike and skate park needed help most. The park remains under construction and closed to the public. The city says it is scheduled to open in 2026, though no official opening date has been announced.

The City Council approved a Bike and Skate Park Corrective Action Plan on Feb. 10, after the project came under scrutiny over how it was built and whether the existing infrastructure is safe. That plan says staff still need to verify insurability, review construction records against approved project documents and prepare a topographic survey of what has already been built before deciding whether to complete or remediate the site.

The corrective action plan lists unpaid balances from Wildland Operators for $113,040, Livin’ Lawn Care for $10,000 and GLJ Construction for $23,714. It also says more than 1,000 cubic yards of material had already been imported, placed, shaped, compacted and partially paved.

It was built in stages through donations and volunteer labor with the city, the Redwood Coast Mountain Bike Association and the Humboldt Skatepark Collective. In June 2025, the council formed an ad hoc committee to look more closely at the city’s role in the partially completed project. The site is less than 5 acres and is meant to serve not only Blue Lake’s roughly 1,200 residents, but also nearby communities including Arcata, McKinleyville, Fieldbrook and Eureka.