PORT ANGELES — A Saturday morning meeting between city officials and skateboarders at the Port Angeles Skate Park failed to draw large numbers of young people.
But for the handful of skaters who showed up on the rainy weekend morning, the meeting proved encouraging.
Casey Hannam, 17, said he attended expecting skaters to be blamed for the problems that have arisen at the skate park since in opened Sept. 4.
But he left pleasantly surprised that city officials don’t blame the skateboarders for recent complaints to police about behavior at the park.
“They did know it wasn’t us doing it,” Hannam said.
23 attend meeting
About 23 people attended the meeting, mostly adults, but younger skaters trickled in to put the skate park to use after a three-day closure.
Officials said they would make a trip to the park this week on a drier day about 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. to meet with skaters again.
The consensus among participants was that the park has become a destination for teens, many of whom do not skate and go to the park to see friends and be seen.
Skaters have begun calling some of these non-skaters “ramp tramps.”
“If you’re walking around a skate park trying to get attention, that’s pretty low,” Hannam.
Skaters says they are having to deal with bystanders sitting on parts of the ramps and “elements” at the park, getting in the way and creating a safety hazard.
“They’ll just sit on it like they own it,” said Corey Loran, 15.
“It’s not a stand park or a sit park, it’s a skate park,” said Matthew Wengler, 17.