A Windham councilor is critical of town employees when marijuana, beer bottles and other debris were discovered after opening day.

Windham Town Councilor Donna Chapman said she is “disgusted” with the town’s lackluster efforts to maintain the Windham Skate Park, which, she said, was opened to the public in mid-April in a decrepit and dirty condition.

Chapman said she stopped at the park on April 24 – more than a week after it opened – and found the park in sad shape, with the infrastructure deteriorating, the drinking water spigot turned off, and trash accumulating under the skate ramps. At a subsequent cleanup effort held on May 3, Chapman said, she also found a bag of marijuana.

“Who opens a park that is unsafe, dirty and littered with debris, cigarette butts, cans, and yes, a beer bottle?” Chapman asked.

In an emotional speech at the April 28 Town Council meeting, Chapman, who at one point began crying, castigated Town Manager Tony Plante for failing to ensure the park was maintained at high standards, and called for Kevin Bailey, the part-time worker responsible for maintaining the park, to be fired. Chapman, who repeatedly said she was “dismayed and disgusted,” brought evidence to support her complaint, including pictures of the scene, as well as a beer bottle she said she found at the site.

Chapman said she had first noticed debris in the park in early April while driving along Gray Road. She said she asked Plante to look into the matter.

“What I found was disgraceful and I’m ashamed of how our town has failed the skate park,” she said. “I’m even more dismayed by the lack of follow-through by the town investigating the debris I mentioned prior to the skate park being opened – allowing it to be opened in such disrepair.”

“Tony, you were told about the debris, and failed to act,” she added. “That to me is very concerning.”

Plante said he had spoken with Parks and Recreation Director Brian Ross after Chapman first mentioned the debris. Ross retired last week.

“Was it perfectly cleaned before it was opened?” he said. “I’m sure it wasn’t.”

Plante said that skate park maintenance was a matter of priorities.

“Could we do a better job cleaning up, picking up?” Plante said. “Probably. It’s one of those things that I’m sure we could do better on elsewhere. It’s just a question of how we have to establish priorities given the amount of time that we have to spend on those things. Kevin has a limited number of hours a week – it varies depending on the season – but he has other things he needs to do as well.”

The skate park, built in the late 1990s, is located at 373 Gray Road, next to the Windham Public Safety Building. In May 2013, the council voted to strip funding for staffing at the skate park, encouraging the teens who use the park to police themselves in the absence of adult supervision.

The councilors who voted to cut the $17,000 line item for skate-park staffing argued that the money was needed elsewhere in the budget, and that skate park users can effectively watch over themselves. Opponents, including several councilors and several dozen skaters and parents in attendance, expressed concern that the lack of supervision could lead to the skate park being a haven for drug and alcohol use and other illicit behavior.

Councilors Tommy Gleason, Dennis Welch and David Nadeau all voted to maintain the skate park staffing, while former councilors Matt Noel, Scott Hayman, Kevin Call and Peter Anania voted to cut the funds.

“I still believe this is not necessary,” Anania said at the time. “It’s next to the police station. I think the kids aren’t stupid. They know that’s where all the police cars go by… I don’t want to see the skate park close, I don’t think it needs to be closed. I think these kids will police themselves and prove to us that they are a good community down there.”

In an interview this week, Anania said he stands by his vote.

“I still think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “I said the kids would take care of it and make sure that it lives up to the standards that were necessary, and I think they need to step up and do it.”

When asked if he was happy with the state of the park, Anania said, “I don’t go down there.”

Chapman, who was elected to the council in November 2013, said that a plaque memorializing Mackenzie MacVane, a skateboarding enthusiast who visited the park frequently, had been smashed with a baseball bat. MacVane was a popular Windham middle-schooler who died in 2006 after making contact with an electrical wire while climbing a catwalk at the Eel Weir Dam in Standish.

“We have a drinking and drug problem in our community and a lack of things for our youth to do,” Chapman said. “We don’t have anything for our youth to do. We should embrace the youth using it and make it better. That’s all I’m saying. We haven’t embraced that skate park in years.”

Council Chairman David Nadeau said he agreed with Chapman that the park should be better maintained, but he didn’t agree with her calling for the firing of a town employee.

“I agree with the issue,” he said. “I wasn’t pleased the way it was handled, the way it was brought out. I don’t think it was fair to throw people under the bus.”

The town budgeted $5,000 this year for infrastructure repairs at the skate park, according to Plante. At the April 28 meeting, Councilor Dennis Welch asked Plante to prepare a report on the repairs that have been completed at the park with the money.

Windham Town Councilor Donna Chapman believes the town opened the skate park this year without adequately preparing it for use. She said she found debris, cigarette butts, cans and a beer bottle there on April 24, more than a week after it opened for the season. A bag of marijuana was found at a subsequent cleanup on May 3, she said. Staff photo by Ezra SilkDebris and trash has accumulated behind ramps at the Windham skate park. Councilor Donna Chapman said she was “dismayed and disgusted” by the quality of the town’s efforts to maintain the park. Courtesy photo