generations alike supporting the
Ocean Bowl Skate Park must have
left a mark, as the Mayor and City
Council voted to reverse their deci-
sion to cut the skate park's hours
during the off-season months.
cil voted to have the skate park
operate through the summer dur-
ing its normal hours, which is open
seven days a week during day-
light. The changes proposed be-
gin the Tuesday after Labor Day
weekend when it would continue
to be open on weekends, holidays
and all Worcester County school
days off only, as well as shut down
completely during the months of
January and February. The reduc-
tion in hours will save the town
approximately $21,000.
park open during its normal hours
in the off-season. Also, during a
Mayor and City Council meeting on
May 6, many skate park advocates
turned out to voice their support to
keep the park open. By the end of
that meeting, the council voted to
form a skate park committee of
stakeholders and members of the
local skateboard community along
with town officials to come up with
skate park's reduction in hours re-
mained in the proposed budget.
returned to the podium as the first
speaker of what looked like many
to voice their support for the skate
park. Durkin had started the online
petition that had received 483 sig-
natures as of Tuesday morning.
or is forming a committee to work
on the skate park, and I think every-
body was happy when they left the
meeting that day," Council Pres-
ident Lloyd Martin said before Dur-
kin could get a full sentence out. "I
don't want to discourage anyone
else from speaking, but I think it is
something we need to look at."
tion but felt a study on the usage
of the park should be conducted
while keeping the funding to re-
main open in the off-season in the
proposed budget.
closed," he said.
$14,333 in the proposed budget
for the Cricket Center is left in
question since the appropriation
was based on a matching grant by
Worcester County.
Oppeenn 77 DDaayyss