Excitement ramps up with skate park debut
Park free for anyone 7 and up; registration necessary at town hall
BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY SCOTT PILLING staff Matt Overstron, 16, has a good time doing some rail slides at the new skate park at Reichler Park in South Brunswick on Saturday.

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - Clack-clack. Whirrrrrr. Clack-clack.

Those are the sounds you can hear approaching South Brunswick's brand-new skateboard park, which opened on Saturday to much fanfare. Local skaters flew down ramps, leaped over benches and generally appreciated the fact that they didn't need to drive 20 miles for a safe place to skate. The park is located behind the municipal center on Ridge Road.

The facility's opening day featured music, skate and BMX bike demonstrations, and registration for those seeking to attend the park at future dates. The park will be free to use, but skaters must register with the township in order to receive a sticker they can apply on their helmets. The forms to do so are available at the township clerk's and the recreation department's offices. Park rangers will do periodic drive-bys to check if everyone using the park has a sticker, as well as proper protective equipment, the wearing of which is mandatory.

Grant Holmes, 6, of Monmouth Junction, watches as older skaters do their thing.

The park will be available to those 7 years old and older, although those under 12 will need adult supervision. Non-inline skates, scooters and motorized vehicles are not allowed. Bikes, however, will have exclusive access to the park between 2-4 p.m.

During the opening ceremony, Mayor Frank Gambatese implored the skaters to remember to wear safety equipment, saying that he learned the importance of doing so when one of his sons became badly injured after a bike accident.

"Our real concern here is health and welfare. We don't want injuries," said Gambatese.

The facility's completion represents about 10 months worth of planning and work on the part of the township with local teens, who first approached the council with the park proposal through a 227-signature petition in September of last year. The petition implored the township to build a skate park, citing lack of local opportunities for South Brunswick youth, who ordinarily might need to drive to parks in Sayreville or Morristown. The skaters then worked with the township to come up with a design within the constraints of a $120,000 budget, which came from the open space fund.

Parks and Recreation Director Tom Morris said that after eight drafts, a suitable design was agreed upon.

"I think we finally came up with something excellent," he said.

Local skaters agreed. The consensus among them was that it was good to finally have a place to skateboard, as the places they traveled to before were too far away. Many also said that if they tried to skateboard in other places around town, people would often call the police on them.

"All the other [parks] are too far away and we'd skate around the area, but the cops kicked us out of everywhere else we would skate, so it's nice to have this in our own backyard," said Michael Villa, 19, of South Brunswick.

Parents of skateboarders, many of whom were at the park's opening, were also in broad agreement on these points.

"We couldn't wait for it to open. My older son, Anthony, who is 10, and my other son, Michael, couldn't wait for the town to do something like this. ... It's a great thing for the kids to hang out with their friends, and it's really convenient to where we live," said Maria Certo, a Monmouth Junction resident.

Gambatese noted that the township was aware of these concerns and hopes that the new skate park properly addresses them.

"We hope [this] will really take care of the problems young people have in finding a place to skate," Gambatese.