A month and a half after repairs at Riverhead Skate Park were supposed to have been completed, the skate park still sits empty, its ramps severely damaged, according to town officials — and its gates locked shut.
It’s almost halfway through the second summer that Riverhead Skate Park has been closed, and the ailing skate park still has not been repaired and reopened to the public.
Damage to the skate park’s infrastructure was more extensive than either the parks department or the repair company anticipated, according to Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter. When damaged boards were removed to be replaced, they revealed even more damaged boards underneath.
“It was in much worse shape than we thought,” Walter said.
At least 41 more boards need to be repaired in order for the park to be safe enough to reopen. Another 64 are also damaged, but not badly enough to jeopardize the safety of the park should they remain in their current state.
Repairs were originally estimated around $49,000 for 73 boards. So far, the town has spent closer to $60,000 on the original repairs, according to according to Riverhead Recreation Superintendent Raymond Coyne. The additional 41 repairs needed to reopen the park will cost another $28,000, he said. If the town also wanted to repair the other 64 damaged boards, it would cost altogether an additional $71,000.
Though the town probably won’t be able to afford repairing all the boards, there should be enough money in existing parks and recreation fees to complete the repairs necessary to reopen the park, Coyne said.
He plans to present the two quotes to the town board – $28,000 for 41 boards, and $71,000 for 105 boards – to see which course of action the board wants to take.
“I’m going to recommend repairing the 41 sheets that need to be repaired, and that will get the skate park open,” Coyne said. Along with the $60,000 the town has already spent on repairs, that would bring the total cost of skate park repairs up to about $90,000.
“We have very limited funds, but we have enough to cover it,” Coyne said. “We’re going to need to reevaluate all our other projects this year and what we can complete with the money we have left. It’s going to be tight.”
Once the town decides what to do, repairs should take about two weeks, Coyne said. If the town board approves it right away, the skate park could be open again by the end of the month, he added.
The skate park has been closed since the beginning of 2015, after town officials determined the park was so badly deteriorated that it was no longer safe to skate in.
That hasn’t stopped many local teenagers from jumping the six-foot fence and riding in the park anyway.
Last weekend, two 17-year-old boys from Middle Island passed their bikes over the fence so that they could ride inside the park. A few feet away, the park’s gates stood padlocked shut.
“I don’t know why it’s closed,” said one boy. “A few boards are messed up, but overall they aren’t that bad.”
No one ever comes to tell them to leave, they said. “I wish it would reopen,” said the other boy. “There’s nothing like this near where we live.”
Riverhead Skate Park first opened more than a decade ago, after a group of teenagers at a town board meeting pleaded with local officials for a safe place to skate. But over the years, wear and tear have taken a toll on the park’s facilities.
Repairs are being handled by Whirl Construction, a playground and parks construction company based in New Jersey.
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