Biddeford officials express desire for new skatepark

Biddeford’s recreation director said she would like to see a new skatepark built.

More than 20 years ago, a skatepark was built in the city’s Rotary Park through a local fundraising effort. Last spring, the city closed the skatepark because it had fallen into disrepair, and it was a safety concern. In September, the city tore down the skatepark. Recreation Director Lisa Thompson said recreation department staff were worried that people could get hurt on the equipment, and the city would be held liable.

Thompson outlined events related to the skatepark at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. She said there was a community workshop in August attended by members of the local skate community. She said in October, she sent out an email to people who attended the meeting, and she didn’t hear back from anyone.

Mayor Marty Grohman said he and Thompson plan to meet with the mayor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire to do some brainstorming, as Portsmouth recently installed a new skatepark. Thompson said she also attended a conference session with the CEO of the Skate Park Project, formerly known as the Tony Hawk Foundation.

Councilor Neva Gross said many of the people who used the skatepark wanted it to remain in Rotary Park and asked Thompson if it was going to stay there. Thompson said it would only be moved to a different location if a feasibility study determined that Rotary Park was not a good location.

Thompson said the city needed to have a feasibility study done to meet requirements to apply for a grant from The Land and Water Conservation Fund to build a new skatepark. South Portland had a similar study done recently and it cost about $35,000, she said. There was not money for the study in the current year’s recreation department budget, and the recreation department would have to ask for funding in the next year’s budget, she said.

Councilor Liam LaFountain said he wanted to move as quickly as possible, and suggested the city manager find available funds for the study. Otherwise, the city would have to wait until July, the beginning of the next fiscal year, to begin to go out to bid for a study.

“It’s a community need and it’s something that we took away. They had a skatepark, it’s now gone,” said LaFountain.

Councilor Doris Ortiz agreed with LaFountain.

“I’d like to get this moving as soon as possible,” she said.

Ortiz said there was a communication breakdown between the city and the skating community and she wanted the community to know that the City Council wanted to build a new skatepark and also wanted to build trust with the skate community.

A handful of members from the community group Friends of the Biddeford Skatepark, spoke at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Samantha Wolf said the skatepark meant a lot to many people from all walks of life. She thanked the city council and the recreation director for their work on the skatepark project, but said there had been a lack of communication from Thompson and the city.

She said people who attended the August workshop had given their email addresses to receive updates from the city, but had only received one email in October. The city did not notify them of Tuesday night’s meeting, she said.

She said that Thompson had been invited to attend a Friends of the Biddeford Skatepark meeting, and had other plans at the last minute and did not attend.

“Unfortunately, it’s not entirely true that there was no communication from the skatepark community back to councilors and to director Thompson,” she said.

Bryce Grenier said he’s been going to the skatepark since it opened 20 years ago. He said he and other members of the community would be interested in being part of a design team to make sure the skatepark had the obstacles that were preferred by local users.

Grenier said he was “deeply heartbroken” when he heard the skatepark was demolished. He said he wished he had gotten more notice of the demolition so that he could use the skatepark before it was gone.

After listening to the discussion that evening, he said he liked the direction the council was heading with the process.

Thompson responded to comments made from the public. She said she was invited in December to a Friends of the Biddeford Skatepark meeting, but there was very little detail given in the email and it made her skeptical. She said she received an email recently from Friends of the Biddeford Skatepark with no name attached to it, which, again, made her skeptical.

“I don’t find a lot of credibility in an anonymous email where there’s no name attached,” she said.

She said that the skatepark meant a lot to those who use it, and it was not an easy decision to tear it down, but she stood by the decision because the skatepark was unsafe.

Thompson said she hoped to reach out to some of the people who were at that night’s meeting, and said that the recreation department was creating a page on its website to post updates.

“I appreciate the people who came up here and I do want to see a new skatepark being built,” she said.

Saco Bay News Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.