Skate park supporters Beverly Kelly, Cheryl Augustine, and Lori Rinkel address Council.

In an occasionally heated meeting of the Portsmouth Town Council this evening, about 40 citizens supporting and opposing a 2,400 square foot skating area in the Island Park (IP) playground brought their perspectives to the Council.

Rhonda Riley and Brian Whittier spoke for the anti-skate-park group, and presented a list of issues of concern to them as abuttors and close neighbors. Acknowledging that there is a "makeshift" skate area in the basketball court, Whittier handed out photos to the Council purporting to show the increase of trash. He also raised concerns about parking, alleging that the people who would use the facility are not IP residents. He argued that there had been an increase in bad language and vandalism, and an "incident of a dummy left holding a beer can." Expressing doubts about the size, he said "$50K? Does this sound like a small park?" He went on to say "The majority of the surrounding community is in agreement with these concerns."

I rose to speak and told the council that, yes, on occasions where I visit with my 10-year-old, that I have heard language. Kids are teenagers. You're going to hear some language. But giving them a place to learn a skill, develop mastery and positive self worth, well, that to me outweighs the negative concerns. And I urged the Council not to take the petition from those opposed as monolithic sense of where IP stood, since they had not even come to my house.

Kathy St. Laurent, a member of the IP crime watch, had originally supported the proposal, she said, but "the findings have changed our minds." The IP playground she said was not an appropriate place for the park. "We would not want it to be outside our bedroom window."

Madeline Pencak, a member of the original IP playground committee, said that the group "had met 34 times and there was never any mention of a skateboard park." She said, "No one was ever informed. We were never approached. It only came to light recently."

Lori Rinkel spoke for the skate park, and reminded everyone that the initial petition had been circulated at the 2008 block party. And that in just the last few days, since a letter to the paper on Saturday, the group had come up with a counterpetition with 160 names. She minimized the risk of people traveling to IP to skate this park, which is explicitly designed for 8-16 year olds.

Beverly Kelly read a letter from two abutters who couldn't be there. One, from Robin Pacheco, acknowledges "there may be occasional noise, but the joy and community building far outweighs the negative," and goes on to say, "The kids have already turned part of the basketball court into skate park. The children are already using skateboards. It's already here folks, it's just not engineered safely."

Cheryl Augustine expressed the wish "that group opposing would have met with us." "I personally met with Rhoda Riley after her letter in newspaper," said Augustine, "but nobody else from group even called us." And Augustine did offer one correction on the timeline: "Planning for this playground started in 1996. This was not just made up yesterday; this [a skate park] has always been in the plan."

Cheryl went on: "I'm one of the original members who created this playground. It was years in the process. I didn't give up because I believed that kids needed a safe place to play. I believe we are advocates for the kids. We are willing to work with the opposing group, talk about fences, add shrubs to berm the noise."

The pro-skate group had brought a professional skater, Aquiel Brathwaite, who said, "There's a next generation of kids, if they can't skate, what are they going to turn to. This is not just building a skate park, this is an outlet for kids."

It is somewhere in this exchange where Councilor Karen Gleason asked Brathwaite to step outside to change his shirt. He defused the situation by turning it backward. I had been standing next to him, and couldn't see what she found offensive. I promise to capture the clip and post it since it seemed such a bizarre moment to me — a public official telling someone they may not speak to a government body because of the clothes they are wearing?

And Gleason took this as indicative of how people would dress at a skate park. "Are you going to show up wearing profanity shirts?" asked Gleason.

Brathwaite took the high road. "I flew back here 3,000 miles just to talk." He responded. She's talking about shirts, he stayed on message. This round goes to the skater.

Plumb, quite sensibly, tried to move the question, and the council all seemed quite willing to let the neighborhood talk through this rather than make a snap decision that at least half would be clearly unhappy with.

"I'd like to see people talk this out, get some of these questions answered and come back to the Council," said Plumb "Hopefully this can be handled neighbor to neighbor."

"People are asking council to choose up sides," said Seveney. "What I suggest is the neighborhood get together and act like a neighborhood."

"What bothers me is what I saw here this evening," said Dennis Canario. "Divisive groups. That's not what Portsmouth is about. We're one in a million. we have a great bunch of people in IP and I know we're going to work through this."

Council President Peter McIntyre asked the groups to convene a workshop with Town Administrator Bob Driscoll in the next few weeks and come back with a proposal in September. Gleason specifically asked Andrew Kelly, who made the mistake of sitting in the front row, if he would participate, to represent teen agers.

Then the Council took a 5 minute recess, since it was already coming up on 10pm. I had to get up for work tomorrow, so I left. If there were any more fireworks, please leave 'em in the comments.

Update: Correction to Aquiel Brathwaite's first name.