May 29, 2023 at 4:19 p.m.
Council approves use of Hodag Park tennis courts as temporary skate park
City attorney warns of potential liability issues
The unanimous vote during the panel's May 22 meeting came after city attorney Steve Sorenson issued a warning about potential liability issues.
"I really want you all to know as councilmen, as much as you may think you don't have liability, you've got tremendous liability," Sorenson said. "You can say recreational immunity might save you and that would be true if it was built as a skate park. It was not built as a skate park. Therefore, if you read the technicalities of recreational immunity, you're trying to use a facility that was designed as a tennis court as a skate park without having done any research, without doing any study as to whether that surface is correct."
The attorney, who referred to himself as a skater, also noted there is no training program to teach people how to safely use the temporary facility.
The idea was brought to the council by alderperson Carrie Mikalauski who explained that the members of the Over It youth group, which has spearheaded the effort to build a permanent park in Rhinelander, had requested temporary use of the rarely used tennis courts at Hodag Park.
"Because it's going to take a significant amount of time to create the permanent skate park at Pioneer Park, these kids really don't have an area where they're allowed to skate," she said.
During public comment, Caleb Lanke said much the same thing.
"I believe it's in the best interest of our community to place a permanent pop-up at the tennis courts at Hodag Park," he said. "It would not cost the city any money, other than I guess taking down the net itself. The pop-up pieces have already been built, we built them last year. It's a matter of the skate group moving those pieces and allowing them to stay there."
"I believe it will serve as a temp sanctuary until we get the actual skate park built," he added, noting that occasional pop-up parks are not enough.
"(A pop-up) once every three month is not consistent enough," he said. "Having something permanent there will just kind of keep the energy flowing, almost like training wheels for the city to see how well the kids will actually do having a pop-up there, unguarded, unwatched."
City administrator Patrick Reagan said he checked with the city's insurance agent and was told the concept of using the Hodag courts as a skate park is permissible, however the agent stated the city can't charge a fee, there must be proper signage as well as a detailed plan for utilization, the city parks department will need to inspect the facility before it can be used by skaters and must monitor it from time to time throughout the summer.
The equipment will be removed by Oct. 1, it was noted.
"I think this is really a no-brainer," said alderman Tom Barnett, a longtime advocate for the Over It youth. He noted the members of the group have been "diligent" and have not lost enthusiasm for their dream.
"To deny them this would really be a shame on us," he said.
Aldermen Steven Jopek and Gerald Anderson wanted to know if allowing the skaters to use the tennis courts would infringe on pickleball or tennis users.
After further discussion, the consensus was there are much nicer facilities for tennis and pickleball elsewhere in the city.
Mikalauski also noted that the skaters would like permission to display artwork they've created under the supervision of ArtStart on the fences by the court. That topic will be considered at a later time, she stated.
Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].
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