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CHET WHITE/THE NEWS & ADVANCE
Brandyn Fleming (left) videotapes his friend, Alex Gold, while skateboarding Wednesday at the Rotary Centennial Riverfront Skatepark. The park has had some recent vandalism problems that may force Amazement Square to close the operation.
The new Amazement Square skate park, the only facility of its kind in Lynchburg, may not survive to see its first birthday.
Organizers are considering closing the downtown site following what was described as “disheartening” acts of theft and vandalism.
The park — a 14,000-square-foot amenity offering ramps, rails and a concrete bowl — is the only skateboarding facility in the immediate area. Amazement Square worked with community donors for five years to build the spot, and is still adding on new features.
“It’s discouraging to see,” said Mort Sajadian, executive director of Amazement Square, of the recent vandalism.
“There are a lot of wonderful kids who come here, and their parents and families come, too, to watch them. But these few bad apples … It just gets a little disappointing,” he said.
Letters are being sent to all park users this week in hopes of preventing further destruction. The messages will condemn the vandalism, and let skateboarders know the park will close if it continues.
Targets chosen thus far suggest the culprits are skaters, Sajadian said.
Just a few months after the site’s fanfare-filled unveiling in November, intruders broke into the admissions office and stole several new skateboards. They also took a set of older boards used as loaners and threw them into the James River.
Computer equipment and a safe kept in the same office were left untouched, Sajadian said.
Last week, park employees arrived to find someone had slashed the large banners hung to acknowledge the park’s major financial contributors, including local Rotary clubs. The site is named the Rotary Centennial Riverfront Skatepark in honor of that civic group’s significant contributions to the project.
Other banners bearing the logos of professional skateboarding teams were stolen. Sajadian said the flags are only available to organizations with business connections to the skateboarding industry and could not be purchased in stores.
“They’re like collector items,” he said. “A cool thing to have hanging in your room.”
Police reports were made in both cases, but no arrests have been made.
The president of the Rotary Club’s morning chapter, John Stone, said he was not previously aware of the destruction, but was “clearly disappointed” by it. He declined to offer further reaction Wednesday.
Amazement Square closed the park for one day last Wednesday, following the most recent episode, and posted signs saying the damage done was unacceptable.
The vandalisms continued to nag at Sajadian, though, leading to this week’s stern warning to the skating community.
“I feel very upset and feel this has been tremendously disrespectful to the people who supported the skate park and made it possible,” he said. “We are trying to improve the culture, so skaters don’t have bad names, they have positive names. It is a great sport. It’s amazing to see them do some of these tricks.”
“I hope by sending out these letters we get their attention,” he concluded. “If they don’t appreciate (the park), we won’t do it anymore.”
In addition to operating the outdoor park, Amazement Square has started mentoring programs for beginning skaters, organized band performances and started an indoor park for times of inclement weather.
Community donations exceeding $600,000 have been invested in the site. Further improvements are still in the works, including remodeling an old train car to serve as the new admissions office and skate shop.
Park users, workers upset by vandals
The most recent act of vandalism at Amazement Square’s skate park, which prompted museum officials to threaten a shutdown, incensed park workers and skaters alike.Tabitha Abbott, Amazement Square’s operations director, said the possible shutdown was a very realistic possibility.
“That’s not a threat, that’s what will happen,” Abbott said.
Skaters at the park Wednesday evening said the decision to close the park would upset them.
Isaiah Coffey, 12, said he comes to the park every other weekend.
“I’d be really mad (if the park closed),” he said.
Riley Beck, 11, said he can’t remember how long he’s been skateboarding, and he comes to the park two or three times a week.
“I would be pretty mad, because then I wouldn’t be able to skate or anything.”
He said the skaters aren’t the only people affected by the vandalism.
“It’s pretty rude to the people who put this park together,” he said.
James Withers, who works at the park, said shutting the park down would be a tough decision, though maybe a necessary one.
“Every kid here now is such a good kid,” he said of the crowd Wednesday evening. “They don’t cause problems, they don’t start anything.”
Abbott said no one at Amazement Square wants to shut the park down, especially because of what it means to the skaters.
“It’s so many things to these kids. It’s their life, it’s their art form, it’s the way they express themselves, and here they have this fantastic opportunity to do that.”
At the same time, Abbott said, if problems persist, then the park becomes just another problem location.
“We can’t continue to bring vandalism into our backyard every day,” she said.
— Dave Thompson
Reader Reactions
You people are ridiculous…..who cares how long it took to build or how much it cost? The point is that someone is destroying YOUR PARK. If they cared one ounce about the kids that use the park they wouldnt be doing these things. If you want it to stop then tell the authorities whoe is doing it if you know. I agree with the cameras too…it is a shame that a few people have to ruin something good for everyone else.
my sweet DASEY,,yes i did,,and nothing wrong with anything you said up to the point,,of the MOST..part,,be STRONG enough to name NAMES,,leave nothing vauge or questionable,,this is not H2OGATE,,afterall i too do find H/08 TO be excellent,mature and articulate,,but pushing that age thing to me pushes the SCHOOL TEACHER-A-ISM ,,THING,,IT,s LIKE U R HITING ON HIM,,so leave my LORD OF THE RINGS alone..h/08 peace be w/u..now to u AMASEMENT SQUARE..i come in PEACE ,,PEACE be w/u..but if u want WAR,,i will give u WAR !!..U WILL NOT close DOWN this SKATE PARK,,(injunction)and this is why!!I have notified my COUNCIL to petition the FEDERAL COURTS to hold you in brech of contract,,you have taken taxpayers money to build this skatepark,,(incl fed. thus fed ct.)and you have abused the taxpayers by not insuring their invested interest,,you failed to protect their investment by not providing proper security ie. camera/motion detectors/and yet u have profit from said investments thus u have NEGLECTED your part of the contract..thus you have no right to close down this skateboard park,,keep it up and we will add duress/undue stress/abuse of power by your threats,, and we will petition the courts to have this park reverted to the CITY OF LYNCHBURG or independent 3 rd. party ,for breach of contract..this contract is now null and void..SEE YOU IN COURT,,(amicia de courta),,now to u ,,ahhh is that MARKET GIRL,,anyway girl,,good post ,,we need more of u and cc,,keep it a,commin girl,,but a slight corection if u dont mind,,the fight for kids in l/city has been going on since 1968,,when in those days of the dinosoars we had a MERRY-GO-ROUND ROOLER SKATING RING,,aN 2 MOVIE THEATHERS,,thats all ,,thats it ..so we became HIPPIES and did drugs and had free sex,,burned draft cards,protested in the streets,,got killed at KENT STATE UNIVERSITY,and heads bashed in at the chicago democratic convention,,u c back then we could,nt get married,,enter into a contract,,drink beer,,VOTE FOR OUR COMMANDER - IN -CHEIF,,,yet this country could draft you in an undECLARED WAR 16,000 miles away and yet deneigh your right to own a gun and to this day u still cant have a m-16,,ahhh whats gov afraiid of,,this,.. the closing of the skatepark and why because we will go to the streets to have this right BACK!!,BUT in the founding of our country G/WASHINGTON wanted u to have guns to defend your rights from a KING,,see my point,,u lose your rights when you dont protect them and when NO STUPID KID LEFT BEHIND,,thats what government wants ,,they want you to stupid so u dont know your consitution rights ,,nor do they teach them to u ..so you cant become a “FRIEND OF THE COURT’‘,AND stop all this..it,s really complicated,,but GIRL /CC u seam to be on the right path,,dont give up,,FREEDOM ..NOW TO U ALL “”:“”“POWER IS THE ABILITY TO EFFECT/AFFECT OUTCOME”“”:“"FREEDOM HAS SPOKEN..CC/SENT ,,,
freedom, you must be kidding. I didn’t say anything the least bit offensive.
I shouldn’t have said that he/she is more mature and articulate than most of the other posters, though—I should have said “some” instead of “most”. Either way, though, I did nothing to violate the terms and conditions and I can’t believe you would report my post as offensive. Very funny!
20 years…that’s what it took Lynchburg to finally have a place for it’s children.
In 20 years, countless friends have died, become drug addicts and waste-aways.
Now with three children of my own, they may never get the chance to participate.
Habitat08, (wassup CC?!), that was well said.
How many of our friends have we watched, as we who had the support systems, went down the drain.
Lynchburg has never cared for it’s children, maybe on a rhetorical way, but never tangibly.
No child left behind, not really, too many left behind, now they’ll be railed against again, by a 20-something Ms. Abbot, who wasn’t even around when most of us were learning to skate.
What did we have? Skating Boonsboro & Rivermont to Downtown, through the hell that is lower Rivermont. Harrassed by police and business owners.
Eyed as deliquents, and now classified as gangsters?
GIVE US ALL A BREAK!
All it took was one, does that mean all are bad, no.
Are all CEO’s of the world Kenneth Lay, just because he decided to rob a company blind?
,,miss dasey ,,i reported you ,,as an ofensive coment,,a compliment of how great and excellent hab 08,,is fine ,,but when you add an insult to the rest of us,,u r crossing the line,,please re-read the TERMS AND CONDITION TO POST AND STOP IT !!THIS AINT JERRY SPRINGER WEB-SITE,,take it to the mirror,,tks
habitat08, your posts are excellent. I don’t know how old you are, but you are much more mature and articulate than most of the posters here.
I also meant to clear up. That some of the kids that skate and use the skatepark are from the inner city and they come to the park to (in my opinion) to escape from the problems that can plague those areas. I welcome those guys because they can be the most real with you, always looking to learn more tricks and just as happy to receive a used board when given to them. Whether White, Black, Hispanic or Asian. Skateboarding has its faces and you see them everyday whether you know it or not. When you ask people why that skate. They tell you. Its just fun.
Wow!, negative people. We should give a couple of the people that have commented some boxing gloves and let them go at it.
Skaters don’t shoot people, don’t do drive-bys and don’t beat up little Jimmy in the street. 99% are cool down to earth, good hearted people. We may talk a little smack sometimes to push each other harder and to go bigger. We may skate where signs say not to, in parking lots, strip malls, all of downtown and schools. We don’t vandalized on purpose. Some tricks just have that nature. Oops our bad, we didn’t have a park at the time. So if you take it from us. We’ll just go back to the streets for our fun.
See, the park has it’s purpose. We’ve gone to city council to petition for one for years and it took a few private parties to make it happen. THANK YOU AMAZEMENT SQUARE!! AND ALL THE OTHER PARTIES INVOLVED!! WE DO APPRECIATE IT!! There are guys that have skated the seven hills for almost two decades. I’ve been doing it for a little over a decade. We’ve seen a lot of good people come, go and stay. We’ve seen some “bad eggs”(as some people call them) come and always go. Sports have bad eggs, from Michael and Marcus Vick to Pete Rose. People make dumb decisions. Skateboarders have always had a bad name due to the few that do stupid things. It only takes one to mess it up for everyone. Isn’t that what we’ve all been taught.
Next time you look at some of these budding young skaters and see a “heathen.“ Remember, parents give the child direction. Put them in the right direction and maybe they’ll make the right choices. Become doctors, engineers, legislators or even President. After all a lot of the kids I see skating don’t come from the bad parts of town. They have parents that are doctors, lawyers and engineers.
As for the skatepark. I’m sorry to see that someone made a stupid decision. I hope that person or group of people gets caught. It wasn’t a good idea. Cameras are always a good idea. If you have some thing that someone may want. You should always have eyes on it. Its just the way the world has turned out. I hope the park stays open and look forward to kicking around for as long as I can.
Take care people and don’t hate. Peace.
The skate park was never built for the kids, it was built for Amazement Square. If had been about the kids, it would have been finished sooner and at much less cost. Amazement Square held up the project and went way overboard on the cost. Now they threaten to close down a 600K facility because of to misdomeanors. It’s OK to want to get this resolved and catch the thieves, but really? Scale back and quit setting yourself up for more of the same. Close it down? Come on..get real! And by the way… did you see the faces of the little kids playing on the concrete down there? Yeah, take this away from them. Geez!
This is an outstanding course of action by the folks at Amazement Square. They are forcing the skaters to police themselves. If this happens again, I encourage them to close the place for a week or two. If you want to skate, then make sure your buddies are not trashing the place. If they will not listen, then tell the cops who is doing it so you can keep your facility.
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