Ortonville-For the second time in less than two years, the Ortonville Skate Park is closed.
Following a bevy of issues which included indecent exposure, public urination, profanity and trespassing, coupled with 27 complaints to the sheriffs office since March’Village President Sue Bess requested the park closed on July 27.
‘We must have a solution,? said Bess, during a rather heated special meeting on Monday night regarding the skate park. ‘Kids are coming in to the skate park and are being disruptive. We need a solid plan with limited hours, right now’the park is just not safe.?
Monday’s meeting at the Brandon Township Library attracted skate park neighbors, township officials, parents and village residents. Several suggestions to resolve the issue included hiring private security; moving the skate park to the new township park at Hadley and Oakwood roads; and relocating the skate park to a new site within the village.
The Ortonville Skate Park was a community effort. Located at Cedar and Ball streets near baseball fields, the facility has been open for about five years.
After almost two years of debate over park location, and community fundraising of more than $40,000, phase I of the skate park was delivered and assembled by volunteers in May 2003. A second phase of the park was installed later in 2004. At a cost of $36,541, a Skate Wave (or ‘half-pipe?) was installed to complete Phase III of the skate park project in April 2005. The cement pad cost an estimated $10,000.
Since the park opened, concern from neighbors has been made public. The issues prompted the council to vote 5-0 in June 2006 to close the park after nearby residents expressed problems with unruly skaters. The park reopened two weeks later.
‘I think the park should be shut down’we made a mistake (in building it) and it did not work,? said Marcy Hanes, a village councilmember who was verbally abused by a skater prior to the closing of the park.
Councilmember Kay Green agreed.
‘This park needs to close permanently,? said Green. ‘We can’t enforce the rules of the park.?
Not everyone in the audience sided with the board. ‘You voted, we voted, for the skate park,? said Ron Lapp, Brandon Township supervisor. ‘It’s been five years since the park opened’the council needs to pass ordinances to enforce the rules. Closing the park is not the answer. Shame on us for not making sure the facility is run the way it should be’right now we don’t have a method to keep it running right.?
Larry Roberts, public safety aide for the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Brandon Substation, responded to some of the legal issues regarding the skate park and the scope of their ability to prosecute youth when they are unruly.
‘There’s not the manpower to patrol the park’it’s a 24-hour problem,? said Roberts. ‘We have crime’we deal with crime. It’s tough to find the manpower to sit over at the park and just wait for problems to happen.?
Lapp asked the council to consider the donations and time volunteers put into the skate park when it was constructed.
‘What happens to the park when it closes?? asked Lapp. ‘Do we just give back all the donations? What happens to the equipment??
The council voted 6-1 to keep the park closed for at least one month and organize a committee within the next 10 days to consider the feasibility of skate park supervision. Hanes voted against the decision.
On Monday afternoon, following the news of the skate park closure, Zac Davis, 16, and Shane Hargis, 16, both of Ortonville, were at the skate park.
‘Not all the kids that skate here cause problems,? said Davis, a longtime skater and junior at Brandon High School.
‘It’s the kids that hang out and don’t skate that sometimes cause the problems. Noise is a big issue. The baseball fields are lit up until 10 p.m.on summer nights and they make noise, too. No one complains about those fields. The skate park closes at 9, an hour before that.?
‘If they take this skate park away, we have no place else to go. It beats playing video games all summer or skateboarding at businesses around town. It keeps kids out of real trouble.?
‘Moving the park is an option, but it needs to go where kids can walk there, not so far away that you can’t get walk or ride your bike there. There are five baseball fields in the village, let’s use one of them.?
Davis said that skateboarders are often misunderstood and given a bad rap and skateboarding is no different than organized sports like football or baseball.
‘Skateboarding is just not a team sport or sponsored by the high school,? he said. ‘For that reason, we are not that important.?