The skatepark in Heber City’s Southfield Park was reopened Thursday morning after it was closed by Wasatch County Parks and Recreation last week following the latest of the vandalism and graffiti over the past 18 months.
Tom Bonner, the director of the apartment, announced the opening during a community meeting Wednesday evening to solicit ideas from the community to better stop the problematic behavior he and his department have seen in the skatepark and the adjacent bathroom.
Though community members came forward with information that led to the arrest of six juveniles ages 11 to 16 involved in the destruction of park property — something Heber City Police Chief Parker Sever said likely wouldn’t have happened as efficiently had the park remained open — Bonner still remained eager to hear ideas from the crowd of about 80 skaters, parents and other concerned community members on how to ensure the skate park can be both a safe and fun place.
The department, Bonner said, has installed high-resolution cameras, pressed charges on every caught perpetrator and restricted the skate park’s hours from dawn to dusk. Still, they have ended up paying over $100,000 in materials and man hours to repair repeated damages and get rid of graffiti.
“We have taken dozens of calls from people concerned that the skate park is closed. In these conversations, many parents shared experiences their children had at the skate park where they felt very unsafe,” Bonner said. “Because they are afraid of how juveniles will react, we are here tonight to ask the community to help us solve this problem.”
From Southfield Park pickleballers to parents to advocates of Utah’s skating community and young skaters themselves, the gathered ground was happy to offer its suggestions.
Millie Fox — the wife and mother of skaters in her family — said they’ve noticed the recent change in atmosphere at the skatepark.
“What about a registration?” she asked. “Having the kids register teaches them the city knows you’re there and you’re accountable for your behavior.”
She said she’s been at the skate park with her 3-year-old before when kids at the skatepark were using crude language. For the sake of her kid’s young ears, she asked them to tone it down.
“They swore in my face,” she said. “It’s a whole nother level.”
She wondered aloud about the kids’ parents, and said they got to the skate park via public transit.
“Not everyone has a great home life. Not everybody has the things that we have — the things that you have,” Bonner said in response. “Kids struggle. … We’ll extend an arm as long as we can to help the kid out that is struggling, and I think that’s where the community comes in.”
David Lowery, the director of a Provo-based nonprofit youth skateboard program called Carry On, talked about his organization’s work to “promote mental health and resilience through skateboarding.”
“I think skateboarding for a long time has been very independent and to some extent anti-authority. That barrier is changing,” he said. “What we’re proposing, and what we’ve talked to some of the council members about, is to solve some of these problems we’d love to put together and help run a skateboard club for ages 12 to 17.”
Older members of the skateboard community could serve as mentors, and he said the club could organize clean-up activities and get parents involved.
He asked skaters in the room to raise their hands. Around 20-30 arms shot up. He asked them to raise their hands if they’d be interested in helping with a clean-up activity. Almost just as many signaled their support.
“We have some momentum in here,” he said. “Hopefully, as we’re working with the parks department, we’ll be able to make some connections. This really does need to be community driven, but we have the power in this room to make the changes that we need, and we can do something unique and awesome at the4 skate park that’s never been done before if we can just kind of change our paradigm a little bit about the sport that we love.”
Katie Nelson, a mother of six who said she and every member of her family skate though she admitted to being the weakest link, thanked the department’s board and employees for their efforts to maintain and keep the community skate park.
She said she and her family always clean the park up when they visit, and she noted that the group of kids who she’s noticed at the skatepark that causes issues doesn’t even skate. When she tried to be friendly and ask them to show her their best tricks, she said she was meant with pretty meager results.
“They come in a group and they’re very intimidating,” she said.
She suggested police officers on duty routinely visit the park.
“We need police presence,” she said.
John Peterson, the director of the Utah Skate Park Advocacy Group, agreed with Lowery that the true solution to the issue lies within community collaboration.
“What you guys have is an incredible opportunity,” he said. “A lot of city leaders are not like what you have here in this community.”
Normally, he said, problems centered around a skate park means a closed skate park, even if that does just mean the problem migrates to a different area of the municipality.
“You have an opportunity as a skate community to really create something special here,” he said. “There’s nothing as impactful in my opinion than what you guys have the opportunity right here. … What the city is doing to create this grassroot community effort, this can be a test case to scale across the state and across the country.”
Beyond organizations being willing to work with the county and community, Bonner also said the parks and recreation department will reignite a previously failed search for grant-funded mentors the county can essentially hire to be good role models for kids at the skate park.