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Crescent City broke ground on the first of many new features its mayor says will transform Beachfront Park into an attraction that will draw people to the community.

Mayor Blake Inscore called the pump track slated for the park’s western corner a destination amenity that’s going to be bigger than the one in Portland.

But up until five years ago, no one knew what a pump track was. Even as Inscore and his colleagues Mayor Pro Tem Ray Altman and City Councilwoman Kelly Schellong turned first shovelfuls of dirt on Wednesday, the concept was still new.

“The pump track is for bicycles, scooters, anything with wheels, basically, and you don’t necessarily have to pedal. It’s your own momentum that keeps you going around the track,” Altman said. “From what I understand, too, is it covers a lot of ability levels. It’s anywhere from low to expert, and that’s what makes it exciting.”

Crescent City contracted with Velosolutions and American Ramp Company to build the pump track in December 2023 using a $5 million Statewide Park Program grant it received in 2021. The endeavor is part of a revitalization that will take shape using millions in state and federal grant funding along with local contributions.

Along with the pump track, a one-mile pedestrian trail — also paid for through that Statewide Park Program grant — as well as a passive exercise station will be finished by the end of 2024, City Manager Eric Wier said.

There will be at least two passive exercise stations, maybe three, along the one-mile pedestrian loop, Wier said. These are being paid for by the Del Norte Healthcare District whose aim is to promote wellness in the community, he said. These stations won’t have any moving parts and will be easy to maintain, Wier said.

“People can use it for what I’m considering passive exercise, or body weight exercise,” he said, adding that the Healthcare District also donated $300,000 to resurface the KidTown playground. “We’ll have stations where they can stand and balance or do stretching exercises or even push-ups and pull-ups.”

The one passive exercise station that will be finished by the end of the year will be located adjacent to the pump track, Wier said.

“All the work on the western side of the park is what we’re focused on and then next summer we’re going to be focusing on the eastern side of the park,” he said. “The western piece and the next block of Front Street will be done this [year].”

Crescent City is breaking ground on the next stretch of the Front Street reconstruction project — from I to Play Street — at 5 p.m. Monday.

In 2021 and 2022, Crescent City received a total of $8 million in Proposition 68 grant dollars. California voters approved Proposition 68 — the Parks & Water Bond — in 2018. In addition to the Statewide Park Program grant, Crescent City also received $3 million in Rural Recreation and Tourism grant dollars.

The $5 million grant will go toward the pump track, one-mile pedestrian loop, an expanded KidTown playground and an interpretive walk focusing on Tolowa culture.

The $3 million Rural Recreation and Tourism money will pay for an amphitheater, waterfront plaza as well as a kiosk celebrating the community’s Sister City relationship with Rikuzentakata, Japan.

Other projects Crescent City is working on include a gateway project at Front Street and U.S. 101 that improves access to the Cultural Center and the Point of Honor veterans monument. That project is going to be paid for through a $3 million Clean California Grant and will incorporate landscaping near the S curves on U.S. 101 to mimic the coastal dune environment.

Crescent City is also using a $3.3 million Community Development Block Grant to complete the reconstruction of Front Street between Play Street and the highway, Wier said.

He said the city aims to find contractors for those projects in 2025, though construction could stretch into 2026.

As for the pump track, it was Del Norte Trail Alliance founder Joe Gillespie who introduced city officials to the concept when they first began pursuing Prop 68 dollars back in 2019.

Though he didn’t want to give too much away, Dave Holzer, Brooklyn-based bike track designer who works with Velosolutions, promised Crescent City’s pump track would be user-friendly and top-of-the-line. Once it’s finished, the track will feature a 4-foot tall drop-in platform, a dual sidewall and a jump line, he said.

“Anybody can literally get on it and figure it out,” Holzer told the Outpost. “I had one in Brooklyn, New York. I was managing a track before I worked for [Velosolutions] and the oldest person was an 86-year-old woman on a road bike who was eager to get on it. She got on it no problem.”

For Wier, the “all wheels, all ages” aspect of the pump track appealed to him.

“It can be multi-generational where you can come out here with your kids or you see grandparents with grandkids using this amenity,” he said. “It will be one of those pieces in the park that hopefully will bring it all together.”

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