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Durango Skate Park installs security cameras

Security cameras now installed; drinking fountain, seating, shade structure planned

The city believes the Durango Skate Park is now a safer place after installing security cameras earlier this month.

Concerned residents asked the Parks and Recreation Department and Durango Police Department to address alcohol and drugs at the park and to install a water fountain, among other improvements last year, said Cathy Metz, director of parks and recreation.

“We believe the cameras will make the area safer,” she said.

The city invested about $8,400 in the cameras, and Metz believes the cameras will save staff time by preventing vandalism.

The skaters counter the cameras aren’t necessary, and a few would like to see the money invested in a drinking fountain.

“There’s nothing that goes down here that’s bad enough for them to need cameras,” Spencer Aguilar said Friday at the park.

The cameras are part of a larger effort to help improve the Skate Park, led by Karen Rowan, grandmother of a skater 13-year-old Pat Rowan. She organized support for making the park safer and to build seating, a shade structure and a drinking fountain.

Local skateboard shops, the San Juan Basin Health Department, Southwestern Colorado Area Health Education Center, and others see value in improving the park and hosting more events for skaters.

Many of the ideas to improve the park came from Pat Rowan.

“When Pat said how important skating was to him and things he would like to see change, he was talking about fun. I was talking about safety. They are not mutually exclusive,” she said.

The effort began last year, when the city changed the parking lot at the Skate Park to a loading-and-unloading zone only and trimmed back vegetation.

The parking lot change eliminated loitering, and many more kids and families are using the park, Karen Rowan said.

This summer, she is planning six evening amateur-skating competitions, called Thrasher Thursdays, named after the skateboarding brand. She hopes these competitions will create a sense of community among the skaters.

“It brings kids with a common love of skateboarding together who are normally on their own,” she said.

The final and most expensive step in the plans for the Skate Park is the construction of the water fountain, seating and shade.

The design portion could be about $22,000, and the construction could be much more, Metz said.

The project will be part of the Parks and Recreation Department’s 2016 budget discussions, she said.

Karen Rowan is also working on fundraising for the project. She believes the fountain will serve many Animas River Trail users, in addition to skaters and BMX riders.

It should serve as a more popular idea with the skaters than the recently installed cameras.

“I think it’s kind of ridiculous ... they are not really stopping anything,” Tyler McGuire said of the cameras.

Those who want to do something illegal will likely just walk outside the Skate Park, he said.

But if Karen Rowan and her coalition succeed, skaters will likely have six new skate competitions this summer and a better facility, even if they are a little miffed at the new, constant surveillance.

mshinn@durangoherald.com



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