Living on the edge

Medical Lake city employees were visiting the town’s skate park at the corner of Barker and Hallett daily to clean up cigarette butts and trash.

Police were called to the park often to chase out skaters who had hopped the fence for some after-hours fun.

At one point, someone even set fire to one of the ramps.

It became such a headache that city officials earlier this year decided to close the park for two weeks.

In Spirit Lake, Idaho, the city has threatened to permanently shutter the town’s skate park because of problems with vandalism, drugs and profanity.

Officials from both cities say the fate of the skate parks is up to the people who use them.

When Medical Lake temporarily closed its skate park, skaters rallied to take back the park with positive action.

“If we want the skate park back open we have to clean it up,” read fliers that were posted around town. “If the City Council sees that we are making an attempt to do our part then we will be able to get it open.”

Since then, the problems at the park haven’t been as bad, according to Doug Ross, the city administrator.

A committee has been formed to address concerns with Spirit Lake’s skate park, Mayor Roxy Martin said.

Though more than 50 people attended a Save the Skate Park rally and several skaters there pledged to do their part to clean up the park, Martin said problems have continued.

If the committee doesn’t come up with a plan that will work, Martin said the skate park will be closed.

The mayor said last month that she believes that plan might need to include having someone supervising those who use the park.

The skate park at the Valley YMCA is fenced and monitored by a staff person equipped with a radio at all times said Steve Jurich, vice president of operations, so they haven’t had many problems. Skaters don’t have to be a member to use the skate park, but there is a small admission fee.

A lot of the skaters are regulars and have some pride of ownership. Still there have been occasional problems with people climbing the fence to use the park after hours.

Jurich said there haven’t been serious problems, though.

“We haven’t had any vandalism,” Jurich said, “So we’ve been lucky that way.”

The small skate park in Fairfield hasn’t had many problems, probably in part because of its size, rural location and the fact that most of the kids who use it are locals.

The town does have some vandalism problems in the summer, but Mayor Ed Huber said he couldn’t link it directly to the skate park.

“We were worried about what kind of activity it might draw,” he said. “So far that just hasn’t been a concern.”

Hillyard Skatepark in North Spokane has been the target of a “fairly minimal” amount of vandalism, said Tony Madunich, parks operations division manager for Spokane Parks and Recreation.

“We get occasional graffiti,” he said. “The drinking fountain has been broken a few times. We occasionally get a stray sofa or other object brought in that I think serves as a new obstacle to jump over.”

Vandalism at the skate park under the freeway in Spokane is more frequent, but Madunich said some of those problems existed even before the skate park went in.

Post Falls Parks and Recreation Supervisor Dave Fair said there haven’t been many problems at the Post Falls Skate Park.

Location is the No. 1 factor in the park’s success, Fair said.

“It’s a visible location,” he said. Coupled with security cameras, fencing, limited hours and regular patrols by police and park staff, Fair said the city hasn’t experienced any more vandalism – and even less – than other parks in the city.