Grants skates over park maintenance

ABOVE: Overgrown with weeds, the Grants skatepark sits empty behind the Future Foundations Family Center in Grants Friday, August 29. BELOW: Skateboarders practice in a gazebo in Riverwalk Park in Grants Friday, August 29. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Late one summer afternoon, two middle school aged-boys took turns testing their BMX skills on cracked concrete and metal ramps amid a bunch of weeds somewhere in Grants.

The somewhere in Grants was the official skateboard park, built with $30,000-plus of city of Grants money and located in an isolated weed patch abutting the abandoned swimming pool behind Future Foundations Family Center.

The young BMX riders said they never skateboard in the park.

“You can’t skateboard on this,” one said, indicating a 1-inch gap between the approach slope and the metal half-pipe.

Skaters are appearing all over town, most commonly in Riverwalk Park near the gazebo and at Washington Avenue and Mesa Boulevard, where they skateboard in the street, keeping a lookout for traffic. Few if any can be found in the overgrown city park.

Isaiah Baisden, a veteran skater and Milan Natatorium lifeguard, said the asphalt is so cracked that it is dangerous to skate in the park. He also cited the metal edges on the portable equipment as a hazard.

“It hurts,” he said. Baisden said the thin concrete pad where the city put wood and metal structures was laid over an asphalt tennis court and is not stable enough to resist cracking.

Brendan Rodarte, another veteran skater, echoed Baisden’s concerns about the surface and said pebbles in the area also present hazards. He commented that the park might get used by beginning or young skaters but that more experienced skaters were apt to go elsewhere.

Experienced skaters say that the city facility does not present much challenge and they often go to Albuquerque to use the skate parks there.

Laura Malaj, director of Future Foundations Family Center, said she received a complaint from parents whose child was offered drugs for sale in the isolated, barely visible park. She said the set-back location and the overgrowth of weeds makes the park hard to see and attracts vandals as well as drug users and dealers.

Ashley Williamson said she stopped allowing her 15-year-old brother to use the park when they found drug paraphernalia in the park.

The park was not always located in a weed patch, but the area where the skate park is located has not been maintained, Recreation Director Dick Griffith said.

He explained that the city effort to create the metal and concrete park was spearheaded by a group of parents and their skateboarding children several years ago and the city supplied the money. But no one supplied the upkeep. Griffith said that the original group said they would help with the maintenance, but they all left town.

The situation is complicated by an ongoing dispute between the city and Cibola County over who owns the park and who should maintain it, along with the Paddy Martinez swimming pool, that sits on the same controversial plot of land.

Future Foundations Family Center land was deeded to the county for the family center years ago. The land where the pool and skate park sit was also deeded to the county, said County Manager David Ulibarri, but the county gave it back. Malaj said that her researches support Ulibarri’s statement and that in available county land records, the property belongs to the city.

Griffith said that the city and county have been bickering back and forth over the land for some time and neither has maintained the areas. City Manager Robert Horacek said he thinks the county owns the land, park and pool, but that his office is researching the ownership issue.

As far as skaters and parent concerns go, Griffith said, “They haven’t come to me,” and added that he has had few complaints about the skaters in Riverwalk Park. He said skateboards will eventually tear up the gazebo, however.
Griffith and Malaj, whose offices are housed in the Future Foundations Family Center building, both say they would like to get the skate park out of there and to a better location.

Problems over skate park maintenance, location and ownership are the tip of a large iceberg. Ownership and responsibility for the swimming pool and how to spend money allotted for pool improvement are starting to emerge in city council meetings.