MARSHFIELD, WI (OnFocus) – At the November 22 meeting of the City of Marshfield Common Council, members are scheduled to discuss how to address an issue at Braem Park skatepark.
At a previous meeting, per City memo, alderman Mike O’Reilly explained that there is “graffiti and a makeshift memorial at the skatepark in memory of a 16 year-old who lost his life to a drug overdose.” He explained that there have been complaints about this and there is a plan to clean it up. His suggestion for a future meeting was to potentially establish a committee to come up with some artwork that the graffiti can be covered up at no cost to the city.
On October 19 there was a vigil at the skatepark.
“As you can imagine, whenever a young person passes, there was an outpouring of emotion, energy and grief,” O’Reilly and Justin Casperson, Parks and Recreation Director stated in a memo to Council. “The skatepark became a memorial and a place for young people to reflect and remorse. It was decided to allow the make shift memorial to remain for a short period of time and figure out a solution for the spray painting.”
They noted that the memorial has been removed, but the paintings remain and there are requests from family and friends to keep the paintings over the winter, establish a remediation plan, potentially create an acceptable recognition of the young person who passed away, and develop awareness about the drugs crisis and mental health.
“In addition, there have been requests to remove the paintings immediately. Unfortunately, because of weather, removing the paintings over winter is not possible,” they stated.
The subject will be addressed at Tuesday’s meeting, which starts at 6:00pm and is open to the public.
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Author: News Desk
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