Closing municipal skateparks/Sign of the times

From the Press of Atlantic City, Editorial Page, 2/05/2010

Municipal officials and young skateboarders were never what you would call a natural mix. Elected officials are nervous by nature. And skaters are an edgy bunch. They are, God bless them, what passes for a counterculture these days. Not every kid plays football or lacrosse. Or wants to.

Add in the current budget difficulties facing virtually every municipality, and the idea of taxpayer-funded skate parks becomes even more unlikely.

So it's no surprise that many of the southern New Jersey towns that opened skate parks in recent years are shutting them down rather than pay the constant upkeep costs.

But still, it's a shame to see these parks close. And it's disappointing that, in many cases, repeated vandalism by the very skaters the parks were built for is responsible for the high maintenance costs.

"There's no justifying it to taxpayers," said John Kilmurray, recreation director in Lacey Township, about his town's 3-year-old, $200,000 skate park that has already needed more than $10,000 in repairs.

Kilmurray is right, and we can't blame the towns for closing the parks. Skaters have cut fences at many parks. At Stafford Township's now-dismantled $275,000 skate park, a gate was sawed off by vandals with power tools. It's an old story - the few have spoiled it for the many.

Some other parks have fared better. Brigantine's skate park has been open since 1996 and has had few problems - of course, it might help that the park is next to the Police Benevolent Association building. Ocean Township's park is 100 yards from the Police Department, which has minimized vandalism there. And Patmos Park, which was built by volunteers at the Shore Fellowship Church on Ocean Heights Avenue in Egg Harbor Township, remains a thriving, well-controlled skate park.

But it is worth noting that the need for skate parks arose because so many towns and homeowners and businessmen insist on chasing skaters from the various places they find to skate. We've never quite understood that. Everyone says today's children have to get off the couch and go out and play, but have a bunch of skaters try to have some fun, say, in the back of a shopping center, and the police are soon there chasing them away.

Really, folks, most skaters seem to be a relatively harmless bunch. Everyone needs to be a little more tolerant. The kids are just trying to have some fun, and in most towns, the days of the municipally owned skate park are coming to a close.

Look at it this way: Those kids skating in an empty parking lot aren't costing you a dime.