Complaints about the ordinance, drafted in 1990, prompted the
new version.
FARMINGTON – Selectmen reviewed a draft updated skateboard ordinance Tuesday and added a few recommendations. The new ordinance would be less restrictive than the old one and encompass more modes of foot-powered travel.
It would eventually go to a public hearing and town meeting vote if it is approved by selectmen. But unless the new ordinance is adopted, the old one still applies.
Selectmen also had an update on the eight trees proposed to be planted in planters in non-parking zones downtown. The planters will be ordered as soon as the state check arrives and then stored for the winter with the project going forth next spring.
Town Manager Richard Davis told selectmen he drafted an updated skateboard ordinance after he received complaints about the one in place, which was adopted in 1990, after the town built a skate park that has since been closed. The ordinance in effect now only allows for a direct route from the Junior High and former Ingalls School to the defunct skatepark that had been located at Hippach Field.
Davis’ proposed ordinance takes into account skateboarders, rollerskaters and scooters and allows them to operate on most streets and sidewalks. The new ordinance would only prohibit those activities on certain streets and sidewalks: Broadway from High to Front streets and on Main Street from Anson to Academy streets. It would also prohibit such activity in public parking lots. It would also prohibit operation of those activities in a reckless or hazardous manner. There would also be fines for violations ranging from $10 for first offense to $100 for fifth and subsequent offenses.
Davis said police Chief Richard Caton had also suggested prohibiting the activity in Meeting House Park and Selectmen Charles Murray added that it should also be prohibited on publicly leased parking lots.
Selectman Dennis Pike recommended that the ordinance also contain a section about either wearing reflective or illuminated items of clothing or devices for after-dark purposes. Selectman Mark Cayer also said he was concerned about portions of Wilton Road where there is no sidewalk.
Tom Marcellino, whose son, Ben, skateboards, said he was looking for the ordinance to be less restrictive so people could skateboard without breaking the law to make it more fair.
Andrea Keirstead, a teacher at the middle school, said kids are looking for a place to practice tricks. She said the ordinance is a good first step but she didn’t know if it would solve the problem.
In other business, selectmen voted 4-1, with Chairwoman Mary Wright opposing, to accept an amended proposal to plant hearty lilac trees in 5-foot by 5-foot reinforced concrete planters, about 3 feet tall in striped no-parking zones on Broadway and Main Street downtown. Conservation Commission member Bobbie Hanstein said Maine Department of Transportation awarded the group an $8,000 grant to buy the granite gray, colonial shaped planters, which cost $1,000 a piece. She has $1,200 to spend on trees and expects the cost to be about $80 a piece, Hanstein said. The rest of the work will done with in-kind services, she said. The trees would be medium in size about 20 to 30 feet tall with trunks about 1- to 2-inches around. The lilacs on the trees would be ivory silk. Downtown merchants voted on the trees and the planters, she said.
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