Town to Try Auction Website to Unload Skate Park Equipment

The Board of Selectmen again rejected bids for the town's skate park equipment on Monday.

The town will try one last time to sell the equipment, which is currently sitting behind a chained fence at Griffin Park. This time they will use a government auction website known as GovDeals.com.

Two bids for the equipment were addressed by the board, including one from the Salem, N.H. Recreation Department.

The $4,100 bid was for three of Windham's skate ramps, miscellaneous sheets of plywood and one of the angled grinding bars.

A second bid came in from John Gallagher of Merrimack, N.H., who bid the first time around for one of the unused ramp sheets. This time he increased his bid from $750 to $850.

But the town noted that neither bid was in compliance with the bid specifications put out last month. The specifications were for all of the equipment combined.

The government auction website is similar to eBay and requires a 12.5 percent sale fee.

According to Town Administrator Dave Sullivan, the low quote received by the town to remove the equipment was in excess of $10,000.

Later in the meeting, members of a local organization working to save the skate park requested that their proposal be heard by Selectmen.

Peter Ventola, head of the "Save our Skate Park" (SOS) group, said that it takes three to four weeks to get a meeting with the Recreation Committee, and that his group has a $5,000 donation to fund a park monitor to keep the recreation area open.

"It's time for leadership and to do the right thing for our kids and I don't think  we've been doing that," Ventola said.

A Windham Patch report on Monday indicated that the Recreation Committee voted 2-1 in May not to recommend the park monitor proposal. Town Administrator Dave Sullivan publicly stated that the vote was void because the committee didn't have a quorum.

A recent reduction in committee size from 7 to 5, which was approved at Town Meeting, requires a formal adoption by Selectmen before the committee can change their quorum bylaws.

Sullivan suggested that Selectmen could adopt the change during their July 15 meeting, which would give a better chance for a quorum if the Recreation Committee were to take up the proposal again on July 18.

Should the committee not be able to meet with the SOS group for another try at hearing the proposal, Selectmen could take up the reconsideration request on July 29.

Windham Rep. Charlie McMahon (R), who oversaw the skate park project from the beginning, asked the board to allow his group the chance to succeed and to "change the paradigm" of the skate park.

Vice Chairwoman Kathleen DiFruscia disagreed with both McMahon and Ventura, saying that there was a full-fledged hearing with public input on the skate park and Selectmen made a unanimous decision.

She added that she doesn't think the onus was on the Recreation Committee to come up with a plan for the SOS group.

Dennis Senibaldi, who formerly served as chairman of the Committee, refuted claims on Monday that his group was difficult to meet with, saying that their was a valid effort to meet with the SOS group, and that they had six months to come up with a plan.