Palmer Skate Park closed for winter

PALMER — Skaters in Palmer will have to wait a few months to legally shred again after the Palmer Skate Park closed for the season Oct. 1.

Palmer City Manager Bill Allen said last week the skate park is closed, and blockades and signs posted notifying users of the closure are all that’s keeping skaters from the area.

Those who use the park’s ramps while it is closed will be trespassing, Allen said.

Without a legal place to skate, Palmer-area youths will either have to wait until the park reopens or risk penalties for skating in other areas of the city.

The park’s closing comes as a surprise to some directly involved with the project.

The closure was news to George Stuart, the treasurer of the Palmer Skateboard Association, the group largely responsible for seeing the skate park’s construction become a reality.

“It was never talked about that I’m aware of,” Stuart said.

Stuart added he doesn’t think the city should put an official closing date on the park, saying other parks in the city don’t close down just for the winter months.

“It wasn’t our intent in Palmer to have a 12-month season,” Stuart said, adding he knows winter weather will eventually make skating at the park impossible.

But, he said skaters who use the park would likely continue to use it until the snow piles up too high, or temperatures drop too low to skate comfortably.

Shortly after Stuart spoke with the Frontiersman Friday, Palmer Mayor John Combs called to defend the park’s closure.

“It’s not getting fenced off,” Combs said. “What they’re doing is they’re moving those concrete stops and posting signs the park is closed for the winter.”

Combs said he thinks skaters using the ramps when temperatures are below freezing risk injury because of ice buildup on the metal ramps.

“You’re going to have a lot of people bailing off and taking headers,” he said. “It’s for safety’s sake; it’s not an affront to anybody.”

Combs said the city plans to reopen the park “as soon as we can” next spring.

He also said any rumors about the city manager, Allen, being against the park are not true.

Allen, for his part, said he feels the skate park has performed as it was designed.

“When you can provide a venue for young people to go to and enjoy themselves, even if it’s just for a few hours, it’s a success,” he said.

Since the skate park’s opening early this summer complaints have largely been about noise and excessive trash at the park.

Serious injuries have been minimal, the most significant being a teen who fell head first off a picnic table feature shortly after the park’s official opening, sustaining a head injury.

Beyond that, no major problems have been reported from the skate park, which may be expanding in the future.

Stuart said the Palmer Skateboard Association is looking to raise money for more ramps, and has tossed around the idea of holding more organized events at the park.

But that won’t happen until the park reopens in the spring.

As of Saturday, officials had not released a reopening date for the park.

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.