Question Leads To Opening Of LC Skate Park On School Holiday

By ABC-7 Reporter/Anchor Abe Lubetkin

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Why were kids jumping the fence to get into a Las Cruces skate park on a day when public schools were off?

The skate park is open now, but earlier on Monday the only people skateboarding were actually trespassing.

It all changed after ABC-7 asked one question: why?

Even though school was out for the holiday, a skate park built to keep kids off city streets was closed.

“They don’t want us on the streets creating mischief — open this place up,” one skateboarder said.

Parents agreed: “It is disappointing. The kids have a day off from school and sure enough they asked to do this. It’s cheap entertainment. Doesn’t hurt to come down here for an hour or so and play around,” said Jim Mahoney.

City officials said they were concerned about safety, and on this holiday the park supervisor was off, so they had to lock the gate.

“We understand that kids are out of school and when the skate park is open. It’s a great place for them to go, but we want to make sure it’s a safe facility for them,” said Las Cruces city spokesman Udell Vigil.

But thanks to our question, they said they would.

“[We will] look at the possibility of in the future timing it so that if it is a municipal holiday and a school holiday and kids are out that we are able to make some provisions for them,” Vigil said.

And the future came quickly — by Monday afternoon, the lock was off the front gate and the park was open.

Monday evening, kids were still at the park in large numbers. City officials said they schedule someone to monitor the park when it is open and they said they will try to schedule a monitor on future school holidays.