NORWAY – Night skateboarding behind Fare Share Market was the subject of a discussion between town officials Thursday night.
“Rob and I have been having a little trouble with skateboarders lately,” Town Manager David Holt told selectmen.
Police Chief Robert Federico said that more than 20 skateboarders were in the back section of the municipal parking lot Wednesday night. Holt and Federico have been directing skateboarders to the parking lot for the past few years, but lately residents in the area have complained of noise from late-night skaters.
“We solved a problem for one section of town and caused one for another,” Holt said.
Selectmen were reluctant to ask skaters to remove two ramps and other skateboarding equipment they have set up in the back parking lot. “The skateboarders need a place to go and you can’t just kick them out of everywhere,” Selectman Les Flanders said. “I would really hate to kick them out of the parking lot.”
“We’re kind of at a loss as to what to do,” Holt said. The board discussed putting a timer on the lights in the municipal parking lot that would turn them off at 9 p.m., or putting up signs restricting activity in the parking lot after a certain hour.
Federico said that the town’s curfew ordinance is not helpful in dealing with the skateboarders, as it only applies to people under the age of 16. Most of the late-night skaters are older teens or adults. The town has a loitering ordinance, enacted in 1981, which Federico said is effective in dealing with skateboarders.
Federico presented an ordinance from Dover-Foxcroft to the board that would impose fines of $10 to $100 for loitering after being asked by police to move. Those fines are to be used for the maintenance and operation of skateboarding facilities.
Donating fines to a skateboard park would show “that we do understand the plight of the skateboarder,” Federico said.
The board asked Holt to draw up an ordinance regarding skateboarders for board members to review at their next meeting. No action was taken on the lights or a sign in the municipal parking lot.
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