Skateboarding continues to plague OP library
By Dolores E. Pike

The ongoing instances of kids skateboarding on the property surrounding the Ocean Pines library continues to do property damage and the repairs are constant and costly.  The skateboarders leave, usually politely, when confronted but they return.  At other times they just move their activities onto the Taylor Bank’s property.

Accordingly to Jerilyn Holston, branch manager of the Ocean Pines library, the kids even skateboard on the premises during regular library hours.  More than one patron has come into the library very concerned that a car might hit kids as they skitter on and off the sidewalks and onto the parking area.  Other patrons are concerned that the skateboarders might roll into them as they come up the steps and approach the vestibule area where the skateboarders are cavorting.

The skateboarding has damaged the handrails in front of the building causing them to become jagged. Some patrons have been cut, though not seriously.  On a recent Sunday a staff member saw kids skateboarding on top of the bike rack, loosening it from its moorings in the cement.  Kids jumping their skateboards from the brick wall into the bushes have destroyed one of the bushes. 

An overt act of vandalism perpetrated on the library property and not connected with the skateboarding, was the deliberate destruction of one of the tall outside decorative light standards.  It was shattered when someone apparently threw a brick at it.

“I hate to call the skate boarding vandalism because the kids want a place to have fun with their skateboards and I understand that so it is not like they are out to hurt the building, they just want to have fun.  But it would be great if Ocean Pines could create a place for the kids like Ocean City did.  The skateboard facility in Ocean City is well used.  The kids love it.  It’s great.  It might be something for Ocean Pines or the county to think about, I don’t know. The kids need a place to skateboard,” said Ms. Holston who went on to speculate that it would be nice if Ocean Pines, parents and the library could sit in on a committee to try and work out a solution to the benefit of all concerned.