Skateboard park future is shaky

As the clock passed the midnight hour, City Chief Operations Officer John Regan updated commissioners on efforts to reduce noise levels from the skateboard area of Hamilton Upchurch Park.

Commissioners seriously considered filling in the skateboard area of Hamilton Upchurch Park with Mayor Joe Boles asking, “How much would it cost to fill it in and make a garden?”

Boles’ remarks came after impassioned pleas from homeowner Jon Hodgin of neighboring Flamingo Drive. “Our quality of life has been damaged,” Hodgin said. “This has been five months out of compliance with the city’s noise ordinance, which calls for a cease and desist order, yet the city has chosen not to enforce it.”

“I want to register my disappointment,” the mayor said. “This has gone way past a little kids’ skateboard area.”

Regan said he’ll get bids for a design to build a 12-foot wall system to reduce noise impacting Flamingo Drive.

As an interim move, commissioners agreed to set skateboard park hours from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. instead of the previously ambiguous closing time of “dusk”.

City commissioners also agreed that the entire future of the park area will be revisited when Regan returns October 26th with greater detail on the wall system.