Sport skaters have been spinning their wheels in pursuit of a municipal skate park.
Sport skaters have been spinning their wheels in pursuit of a municipal skate park.
By STEPHEN SIFFVINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- Six years ago Matt Lilly was one of the sport skaters standing in the background as high school compatriots argued for their cause.
What the city needs, the older boys told city council at the time, is a skate park: a place where skateboarders can practice without antagonizing business owners or raising the ire of cops or neighborhood grouches.
Now, Lilly is one of the older boys, arguing in suit and tie as a crowd of about 50 stood behind him in city council chambers.
Still trying: Another generation of skaters has mobilized for action, for at least the third time since city council cracked down on skating in 1989.
"It is just like telling any other athlete they can't do what they love to do," said Lilly, a Canfield High School senior. "It is really our passion."
Indulging that passion requires pavement, jumps and ramps -- or, in a pinch, staircases and railings. Business owners complain that the skateboards scratch paint, damage concrete and sometimes ding cars.
"They are not out to cause damage," said Patrolman Jim Conrad, who often finds himself enforcing the ordinance. "They just don't think about that."
Not welcome: Last year, the city offered "no skating" signs to businesses, and police often tell the kids to move along.
There is also an ordinance on the books against skateboarding in a manner that "unduly interferes" with pedestrian or automobile traffic.
Council explored creating a skate park when skaters spoke up 1995, even sending Mark Fortunato, the city's lawyer, to Columbus to look at one, but they tabled the idea, in part because of concerns about liability.
"It seems to be pretty important to the kids," said Mayor Lee Frey. "We have a responsibility to investigate it thoroughly."
Liability remains a concern.
Charles Tieche, city manager said the city's insurance carrier indicated that a supplemental policy would be needed to cover a skate park and that skaters and their parents would have to sign forms limiting the city's liability.
"How do you police it?" asked Tieche. "It is going to be some amount of administrative expense."
Hubbard park: Many skaters old enough to drive, or with parents supportive enough to take them, frequent a private indoor skating park in Hubbard. It costs $10 to get in, $5 for members, but Eric Schadel said he and his brother, both high school students, go as often as they can.
"Since we can't skate in town, it is the only place we can skate around here," Eric said.
The situation is unfair, skaters say.
"They give football players a place to go and a team, they give baseball players a place, they give us nothing," said Mike Hudoba, an eighth-grader and in-line skater. "If you are a skater, there is just no place to go."