Mosier moves forward with skatepark

MOSIER — Five years after the idea first surfaced, the City of Mosier and Main Street Mosier, a nonprofit group, are preparing to break ground on a new skatepark honoring Jacob Rogers, an avid skater who grew up in Mosier.

Rogers died in 2019 at age 23 while working at Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort.

Rogers built his community around skating, and the new park — called Jacob’s Park — aims to continue that legacy. His mother, Andrea Rogers, Mosier’s current city manager and former mayor, has helped steer the project both as a longtime Main Street Mosier board member and through her city role.

The push for a skatepark began in 2021, when Main Street Mosier started exploring how to fund the project without relying on the city to pay for it. Last year, the nonprofit — with help from city staff — secured a $552,000 grant from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. The total cost of the skatepark project is $696,000, with the remaining $144,000 covered through in-kind donations, fundraising and volunteer support. The city will be responsible for maintenance.

Lee Campbell, a Main Street Mosier member and co-project manager for Jacob’s Park, said that serious planning began in 2022.

“We needed to establish an inclusive recreation space that was within the city limits of our small town,” Campbell said. “There is a lot of recreation in the Gorge, but if there are kids in town who can’t get rides to the mountain to ski, or they don’t have money to windsurf or kiteboard, there’s really nothing for them to do outside that is within the city limits.”

Main Street Mosier selected Dreamland Skateparks for design and construction. Between some $20,000 raised by Main Street Mosier, in-kind donations from Dreamland worth tens of thousands of dollars, and volunteer work, including project management, Campbell says the project has met its goal of using no city funds to build it.

“Essentially we are going to give this to the city,” Campbell said. “The park will be owned by the city when we’re done, but [the city doesn’t] have to pay anything for it.”

Location concerns

While enthusiasm for a skatepark has been widespread, not all residents agreed with its chosen location — on the east end of town near the Mosier Creek Bridge. Mosier resident Jayne Elken, who lives up the hill from where the skatepark will be constructed, first learned more about the project during a November 2024 city council meeting and soon raised safety and location concerns.

In a letter to the council dated January 2025, Elken wrote that she supported the idea of a skatepark, but felt the timing and site selection were premature.

“I see a skatepark as a ‘luxury item,’ a long term goal,” she wrote. “We have no rules, supervision, and only skeletal management of our current recreational attractions, without taxing absent systems with the premature addition of an additional recreational pursuit.”

Elken also worried about traffic and safety impacts from the nearby railroad expansion project, which she felt were not given enough consideration when the city approved a permit for the skatepark.

“I have an issue with the city not fully addressing adequately the conditions for the permit, that being safety and impacts on the neighborhood,” she told Uplift Local. “None of that was addressed at the [permit] hearing like I assumed it would.”

Her concerns led to an appeal to Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) in late 2025, and a petition signed by more than 60 residents requesting that the location be reconsidered.

But by Mosier’s Dec. 10 council meeting, Elken and the city reached a settlement: Elken agreed to withdraw her appeal in exchange for greater transparency and community involvement in the project. The LUBA case was dismissed.

Elken now serves on a committee with city representatives, Main Street Mosier, and residents to help draft park rules, which are expected to go before the city council on Feb. 4.

Proving Jacob wrong

For Andrea Rogers, seeing the project so close to becoming reality carries deep personal meaning.

She said when Jacob was 9 or 10, he became “pretty obsessed” with scootering and skateboarding.

“At the time, I had to take him to Hood River to access the skatepark there, which back then was certainly not a very safe park,” she said. “In middle school … his community formed around the people he met at the skatepark and at the skate shop.”

Rogers said her son often incorporated his passion for skating into his school work. The logo for the park is based on a watercolor of a skate shoe that Jacob painted as a student.

She recalled that years ago she asked him, “What if they built a skatepark here?” Jacob told her it would never happen — a remark that would eventually inspire her to prove otherwise.

Now, as city manager, Rogers said she has remained transparent about her dual involvement.

“When I talked to the mayor and offered my skills and experience to take this job, the skatepark was the farthest thing from my mind,” she said. “It was love for my community and the desire to see it operating better and that has been my focus through this.”

She explained the site selection came down to logistics and opportunity: the east-end property was part of a land settlement with Union Pacific Railroad and could be counted toward grant matching funds.

“The reason for the specific area was due to the fact that the property could be used as matching funds to meet the requirements of the conditional use permit and reduce the cost of the skatepark,” Rogers said.

Construction is expected to begin in March and will likely take about 90 days, weather permitting. If all goes according to plan, skaters could be rolling through the park by summer 2026.

•••

Read full notes from Mosier City Council’s April 16, 2025, Nov. 5, 2025, Dec. 10, 2025 and Jan. 7, 2026 meetings, where the skate park was discussed, by Gorge Documenters Lynda Ontiveros, Kathy Omer, Sherry Ann Romero Brunecz and Chelsea Clark at www.columbia-gorge.documenters.org.

How Mosier’s half-million dollar grant works

The $552,000 grant Mosier received from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is what’s called a “reimbursement grant.” This means Mosier won’t get funding upfront. Instead, it will receive the grant money after it has paid for pre-approved project costs.

Per Gorge Documenter notes of Mosier City Council’s Dec. 10, 2025 meeting, council member Ron Wright asked where the initial funds to pay for the park will come from.

City manager Andrea Rogers replied that as far as she understands, the contractor, Dreamland Skateparks, has been willing to wait for the funds to be reimbursed before being paid.

Colleen Coleman, special projects coordinator for the city, added that the city may legally borrow money from city funds that have come in under budget, and then pay it back once they get the reimbursement, and Mosier has done this in the past with reimbursement grants.

She also noted that the grant requires the skatepark to be maintained for 25 years, and the city is obligated to “keep it in the condition that you’ve promised to build it.”