*** Nampa Skate Park Users Suggestions ***
Nampa, Idaho -- 09/10/2007
http://www.idahopress.com/cms/artwork/articleimages/298.jpg
Photo - Derek Bloom, 12, left, and Ben Checketts, 8, both of Nampa,
carve through the skate park at Roosevelt Park on Sunday. The park
has been closed for two weeks because of vandals, but reopened this
weekend, giving young recreationists the chance to return. In the back
ground gray paint covers up some of the graffiti that the vandals had
sprayed across the park.
To the delight of local young people, Nampa’s
Roosevelt Skate park reopened Friday after
being closed for more than two weeks because
of recurring vandalism.
A chain-link fence, which Nampa Parks and Recreation
staff lock every night, now surrounds the popular skate
park. It is located next to Roosevelt Elementary in western
Nampa.
The large concrete bowl and small ramp, the park’s
primary features, draw local skateboarders, BMX
bikers and the occasional Rollerblader.
For about two years, the city has been threatening to
close the park due to graffiti and other vandalism,
14-year-old Justin Checketts of Nampa said.
When officials finally shuttered the park on Aug. 23,
they cited destroyed signs and trash cans, a portable
toilet set on fire and a tree broken in half as well as the
graffiti as reasons for the closure.
Justin and Benny Cardenas, also 14, said the graffiti
generally consisted of crass slogans for or against
skateboarding and BMX biking.
“It’s nothing bad,” Benny said.
Sunday afternoon, the two teenagers were at the park
riding BMX bikes and skateboarding with a group.
Regular users value park
Justin Checketts said he didn’t think the perpetrators were
any of the park’s regular users, and suggested that most of
the graffiti happened late at night. The BMX rider said he
thought closing the park because of a few lawbreakers was
unfair to others.
He suggested that instead of closing the park, city officials
should “put up cameras so they can actually catch who’s
doing it.”
Chris Luna, a Nampa Parks and Recreation seasonal
maintenance technician, said that in addition to the graffiti,
another major problem involved skateboarders overturning
trash cans in order to jump over them. He said trash from
the cans gets littered across the park and the cans themselves
get dented and damaged by errant skaters.
Cardenas suggested this problem and others could be
alleviated if the city would expand the park’s amenities
and give skaters a few boxes, rails and other objects on
which to do their tricks.
Skaters favor expansion
Cardenas, a skater and Rollerblader, said the city could
fight vandalism more effectively if it spent money on
expanding the park instead of paying for warning signs
and fencing.
“I don’t think (closing the park) was they
best thing they could do,” Checketts said.
The pair called the fencing an eyesore and said it
restricts activities in what was already a cramped park.
“It just makes it look more trashy with this fence,”
Checketts said. “It’s better without it.”
He added that because the fence is so close to the skating
and biking area, it gets in the way of bigger tricks and poses
a safety hazard.
Luna said the Parks and Recreation department plans to
replace the chain-link fence with something more attractive
and permanent. He said he believes the department did the
right thing when it closed the park.
“I think that it was actually a good idea,” he said.
“The kids need to know that vandalism and graffiti
can’t be happening.”
Geneb...Wenatchee,Washington-USA
All Things Northwest in BMX!
***** Gene`s BMX *****
http://www.genesbmx.com
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