Parks, Parents Differ On Skateboard Park

With some parents opposing a skateboard park at Lincoln Junior High School and the Skokie Park District and other parents and groups supporting it, a decision on whether to build the skate park will not be made until later this month.

About 90 people came to a public hearing on the skate park Wednesday, with many stepping to the microphone to express their views. 

Michelle Tuft, superintendent of recreation and facilities for the Skokie Park District, started the session with an overview of the plans, saying there's a need for a safe place for growing numbers of skateboarders to do their thing.

Earlier:

"Skaters are forced to use streets and parking areas due to a lack of facilities," she said, adding that if a community doesn't have a skate park, then the whole community is a skate park. 

Patty O'Malley, a parent in Skokie-Morton Grove District 69, said she wasn't against a skate park, but felt Lincoln Junior High was the wrong place for it. She expressed legal and security concerns, according to the Skokie Review, and also said it had no benefit for the school district. 

Carolyn Anthony, director of the Skokie Public Library, said skateboarders often ply their craft in the library parking lot where motorists are driving, and she fears one of them will get hit, according to TribLocal. 

Skateboarders who want to skate in a skate park now have to travel to Park Ridge's Hinckley Park or one of two skateboard parks in Glenview. The Niles Park District is considering building a skate park. 

If approved, three governments--the park district, School District 69 and the village of Skokie--would form an intergovernmental agreement to build and run it. The village would contribute $250,000 for contruction, the park district would oversee maintenance and the school district would provide the land.

 Construction could start next spring.