Gille Skate Park to be Open Seasonally, Monitored

The will reopen by Monday, April 16 after the township committee voted to keep the park open seasonally with a monitor.

“We’ve had a lot of issues over the past couple years with the use and the upkeep of the skate park in addition to the equipment that’s being used there,” township Administrator Veronica Laureigh said.

The skate park will now be opened from April 16 to Oct. 31 from 10 a.m. to noon and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. A summer recreation employee will staff the park and kids will be required to purchase and present a $5 ID. Bikes and scooters will continue to be prohibited but skaters will only be required to wear helmets.

When the Skate Park was developed for $237,000 in 2006, it was only equipped for inline skates and skateboards, not bicycles or scooters, Laureigh said.

“It is not insured for that,” Laureigh said. “The insurance company will not insure us for that.”

Other issues include littering, vandalization and kids calling 9-1-1 to have the skate park opened when it’s locked, she said.

Laureigh met with Recreation Director James Wioland, Public Works Director Casey Parker and Police Chief William Nally, who encouraged taking action, she said. The changes would be a $1,000 investment.

“We’re looking for some support to manage the skate park,” Laureigh said. “It has gotten to a situation where it is out of hand….From day one it has been nothing but a problem.”

Committeeman Gary Quinn agreed that “the kids are out of control,” he said.

“If we don’t do it, I think we just dismantle and sell the equipment because it’s absolutely out of control,” Quinn said. “We’ve got incidents where the police are really in need and we’re sending them over here to babysit the kids.”

The skate park is a “good thing” for the kids who use it properly, Quinn said.

“We want to provide every kind of service for the kids in this town but we can’t do it at the taxpayer’s expense,” he said. “We don’t want to take and shut this place down if we can avoid it.”

Committeeman Sean Sharkey would also hate to see the skate park shut down, he said. Unless kids are involved in organized sports, there’s not much else to do in town, he said.

“I only see two options,” township attorney Lauren Staiger said. “One, do something to try and monitor it because of this insurance issue or close it down…So trying to find a way to monitor it is the right thing.”

Signs will be posted at the skate park to notify kids of the changes and hours of operation, Laureigh said.

“I just want to skate,” Ryley Scholl, 16, said. “I always have my helmet.”

Before moving to Lacey Township three years ago, Scholl used to skate in Monmouth County, he said.

“I’ve never seen a skate park handled so badly,” he said. “We have a beautiful park meat to skate and we can’t skate.”

Matthew Giovanni, 16, said police used to ticket kids who did not comply and was disappointed in the township’s decision to only keep the skate park open seasonally.

“Skating is nice all year long,” said Giovanni, who is a sponsored skater.

Scholl’s mother Maura agreed that something had to be done and was onboard with prohibiting bikes and requiring ID cards but opposed having the park open seasonally.

“It’s near and dear to my heart,” she said. “These kids can’t be anywhere…I would really, really plead with you not to make it such a short season.”

The committee will revisit the issue in October to see if keeping the park open would be doable, Quinn said.