LEWISTON — Funz Trampoline Park on East Avenue was given the go-ahead to reopen Friday afternoon after addressing a pair of life-safety violations found at the business a day before.
The City of Lewiston code enforcement officer posted a sign on the door of FunZ Trampoline Park at 2:30 p.m. Thursday. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
City officials said they shut down the business Thursday afternoon after an inspection revealed several violations. Among the more serious infractions, a city spokeswoman said, was a lack of fire alarm monitoring and emergency exits that were not accessible.
After those two issues were rectified, the city lifted its condemnation notice, with conditions, about 4 p.m. Friday.
The business was also cited for failing to secure a building permit for the construction of four rooms at the 40 East Ave. site, according to Angelynne Amores, Lewiston’s director of marketing and communications. Until emergency exits connected to those rooms are modified, the business has agreed to keep the rooms closed.
Additionally, Funz employees were also chastised for removing the condemnation placard from the business windows the day before — it is illegal for anyone other than city code officials to remove the signs.
The closure of the trampoline park created a stir in the Lewiston area Thursday when several people went to the business with their children only to find the doors locked and the condemnation notice on the windows.
Causing more confusion still, a Funz employee peeled the city sign off the window and reopened the business just hours after the city inspection, believing the matter had been resolved. It was closed again a short time later.
About 4 p.m. Friday, Funz management posted a new message on their Facebook page.
“Hi everyone,” the post states. “Sorry for all the confusion yesterday. We are now open and will be resuming regular hours! We have passed inspection. We appreciate the work the town and inspectors did to help us get back opened so quickly! Thank you so much for your support and sorry for any inconvenience!”
Amores said the city will continue to monitor the business.
“The city has a bifurcated goal,” she said, “to work with businesses so they can be the best they can be while ensuring that patrons are safe.”
The trampoline park opened in December 2015, at the time operating as Aero Air Park. In the winter of 2019, the business underwent an expansion that grew the facility from 15,000 square feet to just over 40,000. The name of the business was changed to Funz after Jun “Tom” Zhang took on ownership.
The expansion added a ropes course, Velcro wall, rock climbing wall, bumper balls and zip line for those 46 inches and taller, a teens-only section for practicing Parkour (wild jumps and tricks), a large section for the under-10 crowd with multilevel slides and a ball pit, and an all-ages ninja course, foam pit, basketball area and main trampoline court. The capacity of the business at the time rose from 80 to 200 children.
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