Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department Director Roger Herring says he plans to meet with local skateboard enthusiasts Saturday morning. During a meeting of the Park and Rec Board Monday evening at the City Park outdoor shelter, Herring said improvements to the skate park at Sunnyside Park should be completed soon, after much time and effort. He said “It has been a very involved project.” Herring said 18 4×10 sheets of skate park quality wood, each with 54 screws, half of which are stainless steel have arrived, and are scheduled to be assembled by the end of this week. In addition, protective surfaces have been applied.

Herring attributed progress on the project to the fact his staff have not had to do much mowing due to the dry conditions. Roger said he plans to meet with all skaters and/or their parents this Saturday, to talk about the skaters’ their responsibility in seeing to it that vandalism is curbed. He says the meeting will likely take place at 10-a.m. Saturday. He will tell the skaters and their parents about the liability issues, and that they need to take pride in the facility and “police it.”  Herring says if they make it through this fall without any damage being perpetrated to the park, he will likely make a commitment to buying some more pieces for the park, to replace missing and/or damaged and removed components.

He says also, a new sign with the rules and regulations will be placed at the site. Herring will go over those rules during the meeting Saturday, and persons who normally use the park, will have to sign-off on a form acknowledging they understand those rules. Additional details concerning Saturday’s meeting will be released within the coming days. Herring says there’s a whole different group of persons using the park, and the number of people using it is up as well, from last year.