Skateboarders and scooter riders will have to pull a 180 if they want to use Enumclaw’s skatepark for time being.

Caution tape went up at the Dwight Garrett structure June 28 after the city learned a child was injured on a ramp.

“I understand that there are risks involved with taking your children to parks. I understand that kids can get hurt doing physical activities. However, can someone tell me after looking at these photos that the condition of this park is ok?” a Facebook post on a community page reads, followed by photos showing loose screws, cracked ramp surfaces, and a nasty scratch on a child’s arm. “I’m glad it wasn’t worse. I looked at the rest of the park and was totally saddened to see how truly bad it was. Can’t we do better for our kids Enumclaw?”

City officials inspected the skate park after reading the post, said City Administrator Chris Searcy.

“We perform maintenance checks of the skatepark on a weekly basis but it is possible that damage can occur and we are not aware of it for several days,” he wrote in an email interview.

“I personally inspected the ramps yesterday along with the mayor, a council member and our operations manager. We concluded that further maintenance of these ramps is not financially viable given the desire to replace the skatepark with a new, modern design that requires less ongoing maintenance,” Searcy continued. “The material cost to replace the existing ramp surfaces would be substantial in and of itself but the extensive labor required is simply not available at this time of year.”

According to Searcy, just the ramp resurfacing sheets would cost “an easy” $10,000 alone, without any shipping or tax.

But that’s not the main issue.

“Most problematic is that the sub-structure under the ramp surfaces would need to be replaced as the attaching fasteners (screws) are not designed to be removed and then replaced into the same wood sub-structure over and over again,” Searcy said. “How much the substructure materials would cost would be unknown until the existing ramp sheets were removed. It’s also unknown whether the existing screws could be reused, probably not and that cost is unknown also. This is not an investment we want to make when we are planning to replace the entire facility with a new, modern design.”

The current plan is to fence off the skate park in order to take down the ramps. Once that happens, the fencing will be removed and the park will open again, sans quarter pipes and rails, but with the concrete structures remaining.

There is no timeline set for this work.

“We understand how the timing of this could not be more inconvenient for our youth after the school year has ended and nice summer weather has begun,” Searcy added. “We will begin the process with our Park Board, Community Services Committee and City Council to seek an appropriation to get a designer under contract for a new skatepark. Construction funding for this new facility will be a topic for the 2023 budget process.”

The council won’t be starting from scratch, as the community came together several years ago to give the city an idea of what a future skate park should look like.

“In 2019, we held a public design workshop with over 35 attendees,” said city Parks and Recreation Director Michelle Larson. “The design workshop provided potential user input, and what came out of that was a design schematic that included a concrete skate park with some half ‘bowls’, rails, as well as a pump track so ‘all wheels’ could enjoy.”

However, elected officials have not appeared interested in footing the estimated $350,000 bill solely with city funds, and Larson has been unable to secure grant funding over the last several years — some grant applications were turned down, and then the pandemic hit and grant money dried up.

“I had planned to apply for funding through King County this year, however, their criteria changed for this year only, to not allow government agencies to apply,” she said.

Inflation and the cost of materials have almost certainly increased the construction bill, but “it is time to proceed, grant funding or not,” Searcy said.