“Today is a big day for the Norwood community,” said city Parks Department Commissioner Mitchell Silver, standing at a podium in front of the future site of the neighborhood’s first skate park. “We’re starting construction on something we’ve been waiting for for a very long time: A skate park right here in Williamsbridge Oval [Park].”

Together, with a number of skateboarding enthusiasts in the Bronx, local officials and community leaders gathered at a ceremonial groundbreaking on June 5 to usher in construction of the long-awaited skate park.

Councilman Andrew Cohen, representing Norwood, funded $750,000 in capital money towards the construction project back in 2014, with Mayor Bill de Blasio earmarking another $227,000, bringing the project’s total cost at just under $1 million. Queens-based LC Construction will build the skate park, which is set to open next February.

The construction represents 15 years of appeals by community stakeholders who’ve lobbied the city to get the skate park built in what’s considered Norwood’s leafy jewel.

“I’ve been to a bunch of skating parks and there are some nice ones out there, but I haven’t seen one in the Bronx,” says Eusebio Baez, 28, who is thrilled to see the city respond to the community’s request for a separate space within the Oval.

One thing Baez thinks the Bronx had lacked was a modern skate park designed for skateboarders; a place where they can safely ride and perform their tricks.

When Baez attended the first visioning session to assess interest for a skate park in the Bronx, he was skeptical that his recommendations would be heard. By the second meeting, Baez was asked to sketch an idea for the park, and by the third meeting he was surprised to see a professional rendering for a skate park that incorporated his suggestions. “That’s when I knew this thing could really happen,” Baez said. “They were serious.”

Incorporating locals into the design process of any park is always the goal, said Silver.

“We involve the community in all of our projects, that’s just what we do. We want authentic feedback to understand exactly how everything will fit in,” Silver said.

According to Silver, skateboarders like Baez understand what makes a good skate park more than anyone else. Of the skateboarders, Silver said, “They know the challenges and what they need to have fun experiences.”

Before plans for the skate park were drafted, skateboarders repurposed empty spaces in the Oval to create some challenging skating courses.  A skateboarder who only went by Awnimosa, 28, remembers a time in the 1990s when BMX bikers built a halfpipe in Oval Park so they could practice of their tricks.

“It was just around this same space [where the new skate park will be built] that I saw the bikers and then some skaters do their own thing,” said Awnimosa. “I’ve been skating since 2007 and I’m seeing a new generation of kids that are going to love this skate park.”

For Cohen, the presence of skateboarders at an area where there was no official place to skate showed “evidence that there really is a constituency here that would like a skate park.”

The skate park will not just be a new recreational outlet for the neighborhood, it’s also a way to give skaters a safe haven. “A lot of skateboarding takes place at night, off-hours, and this sort of brings it into the daylight,” Cohen said. “You are welcome here. You have a designated space.”

Creating a safe space for park visitors was also on the mind of Lorita Watson, a Community Board 7 member. “I think [the skate park] will attract more people and give them a safer environment. And for those who actually skate, it will raise their game.”

But the new skate park isn’t meant to alienate seasoned patrons of the Oval, but intended to draw new crowds to Norwood, Silver said. “Not everyone skates, and so we don’t have them in every park, but where we do have them people from other neighborhoods go and check them out,” Silver explained. “This is now adding to the portfolio of all of our skate parks in New York City.”

The skate park has been in the making since 2003, said Doug Condit of the volunteer group, Friends of Williamsbridge Oval. Financing the project stood among the difficulties.

“When they had money from the [Croton Water] Filtration Plant [fund], they asked different parks what they wanted done,” Condit recalled, referring to a now-expired $200 million fund set aside for park improvements in exchange for construction of the plant underneath Van Cortlandt Park. A skate park at the Oval was on the list of needs, but was soon put on the backburner in favor of a dog run.

The project, once funded, fell behind schedule after the first contractor picked for the project turned it down. Work on a skate park in Van Cortlandt Park has also been delayed following its own groundbreaking ceremony last year.

When the park opens, skaters can expect ramps, quarter pipes, elevated curbs, mounds, rails, and other boarding options.

The Bronx already has four public skate parks, including the 10,000-square-foot River Avenue Skate Park near Yankee Stadium.

“We’ve had generations of skaters come and go,” Watson said, reflecting on how far Oval Park has come. “A few years ago we didn’t have all this. We have so many people coming here. It has become a destination park.”