PAWTUCKET –– In this city burdened with one of Rhode Island’s highest home foreclosure rates and a $10-million current-year budget deficit, $550,000 in federal stimulus money is coming to build a skateboarding park and renovate tennis and basketball courts at Jenks Junior High School.

Michael Cassidy, the city planning director, said the money is for shovel-ready projects and the city is ready to go on both the skateboarding park and work on the athletic courts. A bid request has been issued seeking a contractor for the site, which takes in the three recreational projects, at Division and North Bend streets.

Cassidy said the stimulus will allow Pawtucket to forge ahead with more work than expected over the summer, giving jobs to construction workers. He estimated 30 to 40 workers on the projects, which includes subcontractors the contractor hires. He predicted a ripple effect: those working on the projects will buy lunch at local eateries and have their cars repaired at local service stations, and the contractor will buy materials, from lumber to basketball nets and fencing.

Ronald L. Wunschel, the city’s finance director, said people have sought for years to have a safe skateboard park so that young people don’t skate on other public property.

It will be an outdoor park, so it can’t be used in bad weather, Cassidy said. It won’t require staffing because the design –– size of ramps, etc. –– meets standards set by the insurer, the Rhode Island Interlocal Trust. The major work is expected to start when school ends and finish around Labor Day.

The skateboard park will go where two 35-year-old basketball courts are now. One regulation-size basketball court will be built and two tennis courts renovated.

Cassidy said the $550,000 also frees up money for other construction activities, “so I’ll be able to get two projects on the street in the summer and fall” rather than one.

The stimulus money will arrive through the federal Community Development Block Program, adding $550,000 to the roughly $2.2 million the city receives each year. Community Development grants allow as much as 20 percent to be used for administration, but only 1 percent of the stimulus money can be used for administration, Cassidy said, forcing a larger amount to be used directly on construction.

“I can only spend this money” on Community Development grant projects, Cassidy said, “I can’t use it to pay for police or fire.”

Pawtucket, which for the budget year ending June 30 is facing a projected $5.2-million school budget deficit and about a $4.8- million hole on the municipal side, has cut about 40 city jobs this year.

mmckinne@projo.com