ATHOL – At the meeting of the Select Board nine residents of the Lincoln Avenue neighborhood signed up to speak against the idea of a skate park in the area.
Jonathan Strauss of Miami, who builds skate parks, joined the Sept. 22 meeting virtually to support the proposal.
“I’ve built 65 parks and every time we build one in creates a sense of community and energy that’s unmatched to any other sport,” said Strauss. “It makes kids become resilient. And skateboarding has influenced fashion, art, and music time and time again.”
Strauss also argued that skateboarding helps disconnect young people from their phones by getting them outside and involved in a sport.
However, his argument seemed to carry little weight with opponents of the proposal.
Lawrence Flood, who lives at 125 Lincoln Ave., argued the skate park would exacerbate disruption to the neighborhood already created by young people in the area.
“You’re creating more of a problem by putting more on the police, and us as neighbors,” Flood said. “This is not good.”
Flood also said a skate park would diminish green space in the neighborhood.
“I’ve seen soccer practice out there this year,” he added. “I’ve seen people playing disc golf, young people and kids. You’re taking a lot of that away by putting in cement – and spray paint and glass and all the other stuff that comes with it. Orange had a skate park, and they got rid of it.”
The proposal, made to the board at its meeting on Sept. 8, calls for a playground and splash park, in addition to a facility for skateboarders, on a parcel off of Lincoln Avenue. The overall park would occupy about 10,000 square feet on a parcel of town-owned land overlooking the northwest corner of Silver Lake Park.
At this meeting, Planning and Development Director Eric Smith and skate park proponent Stephen Paige presented the board with details of the proposal, which has been endorsed by the Open Space and Recreation Commission. Smith told the board he had examined 158 town-owned properties and nearly all, except for the Lincoln Avenue location, proved problematic for a variety of reasons.
“I just want to say I’m totally opposed to the idea of citing a park across the street,” said Tom Bockus of 30 Stephens St. “We’ve lived here for 40 years. We’ve seen tennis courts, we’ve seen the fields used for sports, but I don’t like the idea of a skate park over there. It’s been quiet, peaceful, we like the way it is. Litter is already an issue over there. I just don’t like it. I don’t want it there at all.”
Following public comment, Selectboard Chair Bill Chiasson said they wouldn’t take any action in support of or opposition to a skate park off of Lincoln Avenue.
“I think that wrapping it into the open space plan would be a good idea,” he told the Athol Daily News. “My feeling is that the board is generally supportive of a skate park somewhere. The key word is ‘somewhere.’ Just where the ideal location is, I don’t know that we’ve figured that out just yet.”
Chiasson did say he is concerned that if a location isn’t found soon, it could be another generation before a decision is made on where to locate the park.
“It’s one of those things that has come up from time to time, but I think it deserves a fair and open hearing and a decision being made sometime soon,” he said. “I think it’s time.”
“I believe the board was very interested in all the comments,” said Town Manager Shaun Suhoski said following the meeting. “Everybody made good points and it’s all being taken under advisement by the board. We’ll see where this leads. I think there’s definitely support for a skate park. I just think the town would benefit if we kind of merged the skate park idea into more of an overall vision of where we need to go in the next five to 10 years.”