Hermosa Beach About Town
Kids get ready to tackle the Hermosa skatepark. Photo
Skatepark to get entry cards
It may pay to Discover, and Visa may be everywhere you want to be, but the Hermosa Beach Skatepark will soon have a card to call its own.
The City Council voted last month to adopt a skatepark membership program that would allow minors entering the park to swipe a “credit card” to enter. Current park rules require the parents of minors using the park to sign a liability waiver each time the child enters, and staff said that some kids, with parents unaware of the requirement, have been left unable to enter and waiting for their parents to return.
The card program will rely on software that the city’s Parks and Rec Department already has in place, said Community Resources Manager Kelly Orta. When implemented, the software will allow a parent to sign a waiver that is good for an entire year, and the child will enter the park by swiping a card that indicates to the on-duty monitor whether the child has an active waiver. Skaters will still have the option to sign in daily, for free, without a card.
Hermosa first began requiring waivers for park users in 2013, out of concern that the presence of a park monitor could subject the city to liability. According to a report appended to the council meeting agenda, trying to keep track of year-long liability waivers for minors with irregular attendance proved unwieldy for staff, who implemented the daily sign-in provision.