Future of Vinton skatepark in doubt

Published 8:14 pm Sunday, April 8, 2012

The Vinton skate park is unlikely to remain open at its current location, two Town Council members said.

Kevin Merchant and Bliss Bujard both said they expect a recommendation to have the park closed will be heard at the council’s April meeting.

Both Merchant and Bujard serve on a committee that is considering what to do with the skate park. The committee met last month and will meet again the day before the next council meeting.

At its February meeting, the council shut down the park for 90 days after repeated fights there.

A video of a fight at the park between two 8-year-old boys egged on by a teenage girl was posted on YouTube. That incident brought the issue to a head.

Council members lamented the fact there is no supervision at the park, which has no video cameras installed and is not in a heavily traveled part of town.

“Those kind of things go on out there unnoticed all the time,” Bujard said. “This one happened to hit home because it was caught on tape and it happened to a kid.”

Bujard said there were four options the committee considered: To reopen the park; to close it permanently; to move it to another location; or to reopen it with more security.

Merchant said it is possible the park could be moved to an area of town where there is more supervision. He said there has been talk of it being moved to the Ward 7 Recreational Complex and also noted the possibility it could be moved to a more visible location in town.

“I think it will resurface at another location in town,” Merchant said. “Nobody wants to see anything go away that benefits the kids in town, and this does, not to a large amount of kids, but it does benefit some of the kids in town.”

Bujard said he wouldn’t mind it staying in town, but under another organization’s supervision.

Bujard said it would cost Vinton $20,000 a year to pay someone to supervise the park and $30,000 to move it.

Bujard has opposed the skate park from its inception because of the supervision issue. He said that since the council voted to close the park, “I haven’t had one person, not one, come to me in support of keeping it open.”

Bujard said it was also a “bad feeling because you do penalize the good with the bad. There are people who come and skate and don’t cause trouble.”

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