City announces temporary closure for Payne Park skate park

The skate park at Payne Park will close temporarily beginning Friday, three days before the City Commission is scheduled to discuss its strategy for managing the facility.

The city announced the temporary closure in a release today. The city’s lease with the current operator of the park expires Thursday, and the city did not receive any responsive bids when it sought a new vendor in October.

“Without having received any bids from potential operators, the best course of action is to temporarily close the park so that we can carefully plan our next move,” Parks and Recreation Director Jerry Fogle said in the release. “Our goal is to move forward with an operating plan that provides the best possible experience for the skating community and for our youth to enjoy the park. We look forward to reopening as soon as possible.”

City staff will present two options for the future of the skate park at a meeting Monday, both of which would make the park free for visitors — a priority for a group of skaters who use the facility. One option would allow the public to use the park unmonitored; the other would require the city to hire new staff members to operate the skate park.

City spokesman Jason Bartolone said staff hopes to open the park soon after the Nov. 18 meeting if the commission selects the option that does not require hiring additional workers. If the city chooses the second option, the process of reopening the park would take longer.

The full agenda for Monday’s commission meeting is available on the city’s website.