Editorial October 30, 2007

“What was the Park District thinking?”

By Danielle Seckler

   It didn’t take long until the emails and phones were running hot with people contacting us about the Skate Park. People driving by, reported that starting Sunday, Oct. 21, the kids were all over the place skateboarding, without any safety gear. Today, several young men in their early twenties told us that they came to the park around 8:00 a.m., before the park was too filled. Since the skateboard park is filled with mostly those who are more skilled or older, many of the kids under ten are skateboarding on the tennis court and the basketball court. That is one of the reasons that the basketball court surface had to be re-patched on Monday, Oct. 29.

   There are rules posted, informing skateboarders that safety gear is mandatory. However, there is no one at the park to monitor if the skateboarders are using the gear. There is no one there to make the kids skateboard only in the designated areas. With this being the only officially allowed place to skateboard, the Park District should have had someone there, at least for a month, making the kids obey the rules.

   People are wondering how so many kids, 20 or 30 of them at a time, could be skateboarding during school hours. Our sources tell us that many of these kids look like they may be eight years old. We realize that because of the smoke from the fires closed the schools the later part of last week, however what about Monday and Tuesday. Schools were open. These kids were observed skateboarding between the hours of 11:00 and 2:00 p.m.

   Where were the parents? Where was some one to oversee that rules are complied with? Where were the truant officers for the kids playing hooky?

   The final responsibility falls directly on the shoulders of the Park District. They are in the kid playing business and know that kids left up to their own will do what they think is best. If the policy is to wear safety gear, then they have to have someone to monitor that the kids are wearing it. Let’s face it; if I know there are no police enforcing the speed limits, would any of us even try to drive at the posted speed limit? So we can’t blame the kids for doing things they see their parents do all the time, even if they get ticketed.

   Another thing, here it is only 8 days after the first skateboard hit the park and the surface has to be repaired. Cracks were there before the skateboard park and they have come back again, like that annoying crazy aunt who comes every year to Thanksgiving dinner. Since the skate park gets so overfilled, many of the kids are using the basketball and tennis courts. How long will it take before both can no longer be used for their intended use?

   We were told a week before the Sugarloaf Park was reopened that the repairs were shoddy by people who understand construction. We couldn’t really see what they were talking about and we wanted to keep an open mind. So there were a couple of cracks. Yet with so much use of these surfaces they were bound to have problems much more quickly. At this point, we tend to believe that the surfaces for the skateboard, tennis, and basketball will have to be constantly repaired. Besides, when a 22 year old tells me that the clay surface can’t live up to the wear and tear of normal skateboard use and that this surface won’t make it through the winter; I have to scratch my head and wonder how much it will cost to keep the park open in maintenance.

   Considering that the Park District has been so eager to get their hands on the Paradise Way property to build a park to replace Bear City Park, people of the east end are beginning to think that if this is the kind of work the Park District does, maybe the Park District can’t handle it. For more than a few years Big Bear City residents have felt their money was taken with nothing to show for it in their area. It’s a trust issue. It seems prudent that CSD should place in the contract to build a Paradise Way Park a legal binding clause that they will decide what and how their park would be built. Before the CSD gives away their land, they had better make sure they get something that will open for their residents to use and not closed down for repairs.

   Only time will truly tell if the surface will make it through the winter. However it was told to us that the surface of the skate park would need to be repaired twice a year. Well, if it only took 8 days before repairs caused the park to be closed, the Sugarloaf Park should be closed by Nov. 6th. Kind of makes you wonder, “What were they thinking?”

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