11/17/2019
The fate of the Tannery Skate Park will be up for discussion before the Brevard Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee this Wednesday, Nov. 20. City staff is scheduled to present a cost estimate and timeline for a new, concrete park, which could be years off, will come out of the city’s general fund and be likely smaller than the two-ramp COMPLETED Skate Park at 222 Silversteen Road that is currently languishing unused, because the city failed to exercise planning oversight so that it could be insured through its regular provider for public use. There are still ways to get these ramps open (leasing it to a third-party entity, finding private insurance, making it a waiver-only facility with guards in place) while the city plans and funds a concrete park, but is up to us - donors, educators, organizations, skaters, parents, grandparents, city residents and business owners - to ask for ways to open these ramps that we as a community built. City staff is letting the weeds grow up around the ramps to hide their own short-comings and throw away $73,000 in private donations and 500 in volunteer hours, so your input is pivotal to get these ramps open and available to skaters of all ages. Attend the public meeting this Wednesday at 3:30 at 95 West Main Street or e-mail council members Gary Daniel and Maureen Copelof (www.cityofbrevard.com )who serve on this committee. Nothing will happen unless we ask for it. Complaining to no one in particular on social media is not enough, speak up and be part of the solution.
Regardless of what city staff has been trying to say about these ramps, they are architecturally beautiful, safe within the confines of skating and completely functional.