Skate park will now be located at Bishman Park

NORWALK — The city's skate park will now be located at Bishman Park, across from the Ernsthausen Recreation Center. In a Tuesday meeting, Mayor Dave Light decided not to move the skate park to McGuan Park. Joe Lindenberger, park superintendent, said McGuan Park will be getting new, all-accessible playground equipment that will be "bigger and better than we than we ever could have hoped for." Along with new playground equipment, McGuan will have a full-size basketball court installed soon. "We just feel that the number of amenities and how big that playground is (at McGuan) and with moving the skatepark there we realized there are some issues with people having as much accessibility," he said. "We're going to still try to look at the amenities we have and want to make sure there are more preteen and teenage pieces of equipment as well. So kids of all ages have opportunities to play, that's important." Lindenberger said with the playground, basketball court and skate park in one area, it would be too much in one place and it would be best to spread things out. Playgrounds will be allowed to open today and Lindenberger said general services were out Tuesday cleaning all playground equipment in Norwalk. "We will be doing routine cleaning of the grounds throughout the week to follow all the guidelines for upkeep and so forth," he said. "(General services) is doing a thorough cleaning of all the equipment today at every playground." Lindenberger said those returning to the recreation center have been "loving" the weight rooms and more people have been coming to sign up for passes. "People have a lot of compliments on the facility which we're happy with," he said. "Now we're just going to get the rest of it open. We're still planning on opening the pool on (June) 19." Lindenberger said there are positives and negatives to moving the skate park to Bishman Park, but that he's confident it's the right decision. "It's on the north side of town so it's not as accessible and we understand that's not always convenient, but we're trying not to put (too many) features in one area," he said. "It won't have a playground right on top of it." He added that the new multi-use path that the city plans to install will come out at the skate park's new location. "I'm confident it'll be a good decision for us," Lindenberger said.