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Questions arise over skate-park land, funds
By jeanne starmack
struthers
The Struthers law director is looking into whether the city has legal obligations over donations for a skate park now that the city has closed the park.
The city built the skate park at the corner of Elm and Sexton streets in 2006 with $70,000 in donations from residents and businesses. The Struthers Fraternal Order of Police also bought the two city lots the park was built on for $3,000 and sold them to the city for $1.
Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker said Tuesday the FOP has sent a letter to city council asking for the land back.
Law Director Dominic Leone said he is researching whether the city has an obligation to return the land or the donations.
“I don’t know if there’s a reversion clause in the deed,” he said. “If so, [the land] automatically reverts back.”
“Council wants me to look into the legal issues,” he said Tuesday, adding that he hopes to have some answers by tonight’s council meeting at 7.
The city closed the skate park last month. Council and administrators have been considering moving the park, which is a fenced concrete pad and ramps, for the last three years because neighbors on Sexton Street have complained about it.
Neighbors have said kids are loud, they swear and they litter.
Council had an offer this spring from Allied Waste Services to move the skate park for free to Mauthe Park.
Councilwoman Carol Crytzer said, however, that residents who live near Mauthe Park do not want the skate park there.
There does not seem to be another suitable place to put it, council members have said. The Fifth Street Park doesn’t have restrooms. Yellow Creek Park is leased by Mill Creek MetroParks, which doesn’t want the liability. Council voted at a committee meeting in May to close it.
Dan Becker, owner of Becker Funeral Home in Struthers, donated $20,000 toward the skate park. His is the largest donation listed.
But the money is only part of the issue, Becker said Tuesday.
“We were trying to get kids off the street, where it’s dangerous,” he said. “We saw a need for that. There was a huge number of people involved.”
KaBOOM!, a nonprofit organization that helps communities build playgrounds, spearheaded Struthers’ efforts, he said. About 100 residents helped build it, and it was done in a day, he said.
“This was a community effort,” he said.
He said he and others in the community would like to find a way to keep the skate park open.
“Just yesterday, I watched three kids skateboarding on Poland Avenue,” he said. “This is what we’re trying to prevent.”