West Haven's $100k skate park closed

West Haven (WTNH) - The skateboard park in West Haven was built five years ago and it cost $100,000, but now the city's shut it down saying it is a safety hazard.

The facility right on Beach Street is deserted with the gate closed and locked. Normally, this park is very popular with skate boarders and bikers. The railings have been down for quite a while, police say. They're not sure if it's vandalism or just normal wear and tear but the city believes it is a safety issue and they simply can't have kids using this without the normal precautions.

"For the past I don't know, I'm going to say about year and a half, the railing on one of the 6-foot quarter pipes has been cut off, no one's said anything, no one's done anything about it and then some of the other railings have been falling off because people use them. I guess, all of a sudden now, people want to complain about it," Russell Hixson, of East Haven, said.

"It's closed cause it's a safety issue now and we just feel we need to bring it, repair it and bring it back to it's normal condition before we let the kids back on again," Bill Slater, Parks and Recreation Director, said.

It's not yet clear when the skateboard park will re-open. Parks & Recreation says they're not sure how much it'll cost to fix the safety railings and if that's in the city budget. Again, police are investigating if this was caused by vandalism.