Skaters vow to save troubled New Brighton skate park

The fate of a beleaguered skate park in New Brighton is now in the hands of the skateboarders who use it.

New Brighton city officials have given a group of teenagers who regularly use Freedom Park's skateboarding area the rest of the summer to try to turn it around.

Some neighbors have said that the skateboarding ramps have become a site for drug use, graffiti, fighting and excessive littering.

They lobbied the city to shut down the skate park, circulating a petition that argued the skateboard ramps -- built in 2001 -- have made the park an unsafe place for children.

The teenagers, who call themselves the Pike Lake Krew, rallied and pledged to spend the summer months working to save the park.

They signed a pledge to pick up trash after skateboarding, to report any graffiti or vandalism to the city's Graffiti Hotline, and to call 911 to report any fighting or drug use in the park.

Skateboarders also have agreed to meet monthly with city officials to update them on their progress.

City officials have given the skateboarders until the fall to demonstrate that their youth-driven effort can succeed.

The city's Parks, Recreational and Environmental Commission is scheduled to revisit the skate park's future at its Nov. 4 meeting.

It is unclear how many people use Freedom Park's skateboarding ramps. City officials estimate between eight and 20 people can be found on the ramps on a typical summer afternoon.

If the skateboard park disappeared, "you'd see us haunting a lot of your office buildings," predicted Mark Gafkjen, 17, one of the leaders of the Pike Lake Krew. "That's why we've come together to keep it open."

The skateboarders had a powerful ally in one Ray Tandeski, a 77-year-old volunteer with the city's police and fire departments.

They struck a deal: He would talk to the city's park officials about fixing some of the old skateboard park equipment if they would tell the people who were tagging the park to knock it off.

When Tandeski heard that the skateboard park's future was in jeopardy, he alerted the skateboarders.

The people who are creating all the problems at the park aren't the skateboarders, said Tyler Jewett, 18, another Pike Lake Krew leader.

They're what Tandeski refers to as the "two-percenters," meaning two percent of all the young people who hang out at Freedom Park.