Protecting Skate Parks and Splash Pads
A skate park and a splash park are great assets to the community and should be protected from vandalism and graffiti.
The community skate park and splash pad add a lot of entertainment and outdoor exercise for both youth and adults. Outdoor exercise is known to decrease the probability of illness and depression. What better opportunity for outdoor exercise than a skate park or a splash pad? It is exercise in the disguise of play and socialization.
The time, energy, and cost in creating a skate park and splash pad can be daunting, but it is well worth the effort. According to the Tony Hawk Foundation, the average cost to build a skate park runs between $200,000- $400,000, with an additional cost to maintain. According to Chelan County, the estimated cost to create a splash pad is between $800,000-$2,000,000, also with an additional cost to maintain.
With investing so much into a park, it is essential to protect it.
Unfortunately, both skate parks and splash pads are frequently targeted with graffiti and vandalism. This crime is ghastly as it affects the entire community. Additional unfortunate details are graffiti and vandalism bring down the property values and usher in more devastating crime into the community, such as drugs and violence. Graffiti and vandalism bring down the entire community’s quality-of-life.
Therefore, it is important to protect your parks from vandalism and graffiti, these quality-of-life offenders. It is also imperative you protect your dollar asset and the hard work that went into building those awesome parks the community loves.
How to protect your park’s assets:
- Maintain adequate lighting at night
- Post operating hours
- Enclose the park with fencing
- Install Park Vandalism Cameras– designed specifically to stop quality-of-life crimes
Traditional video cameras do not stop quality-of-life crimes.
What is your city doing to protect your great park achievements?
