I care about the kids in East Haven.”įranco-Spano said she brought the information regarding the park and her recommendation to close it to the Recreation Commission earlier this month and nobody attended to speak in favor of the park.Ĭasey Galligan, who roller-skates at the park, said she spoke to Franco-Spano Thursday and was told the information for the meeting was posted on the town website and possibly Facebook. “I’m concerned for our kids that use it as recess and kids that might be down there if their parents dropped them off, middle school kids, say, and they leave them there and then you got somebody smoking or doing a nip right in front of them,” Franco-Spano said. The Department of Public Works would cover graffiti only to have it return within a day or two, she said. Graffiti also was an issue, Franco-Spano said. I call public works on a daily basis.”įranco-Spano said she also observed two intoxicated skateboarders using the ramps one night and that they were disrespectful when she asked them to leave, and this week observed children smoking marijuana there. I left my office, I went down there with gloves, I had to pick up the needle. “I get phone calls from the (East Haven) Academy, from the middle school, from the phys-ed teacher,” Franco-Spano said.

There is nowhere else.”īoth Larson and Calabrese said they could go to Edgewood Park in New Haven to skate, but said there are safety issues such as broken glass and gravel, and it can get overcrowded.īrandon Brown, 38, who lives in New Britain but traveled to the East Haven skate park a few times a month, said was more comfortable going there than the Edgewood skate park.Įast Haven Recreation Director Elizabeth Franco-Spano cited alleged drug and alcohol use and neighbor complaints were among the reasons for removal of the skate park.įranco-Spano said she began monitoring the skate park a few weeks after joining the department this past summer, after receiving complaints about alleged misbehavior at the park, and said its removal was not a rash decision. “It is how I exercise some people run, I skate. “It is the only place that has lights, so after work I have nowhere else to skate,” Larson said. The main attraction, she said, was the fact the park has lights at night.Įric Larson, a skater who lives in New Haven, said he has been skating at the park almost every day for two years, also citing the lights as a main draw. She enjoyed the skate park, she said, because it was near basketball and tennis courts so other people were around, and she could hang out there with friends while they skated and she used her hula hoop.

East haven park and rec