AUSTINTOWN — Wedgewood Ramps Skate Park has been in the spotlight lately as the Austintown zoning office had a list of violations that need addressed.

Owner Russell Kaye Jr., 26, said he is working to resolve all the issues to keep the business going and to be a good neighbor.

Wedgewood Ramps, 1739 S. Raccoon Road, in the Wedgewood Plaza, is actually the fourth business to operate a skate park there. Kaye said the facility went under three other names over the past 30 years. He said it was formerly Half Pipe Mike’s, Gravity House and Stomping Grounds.

Kaye said when he was 12, his mother, Joan Fedoruk died. Since he loved skateboarding, his father Russell Kaye Sr. decided to lease the existing skate park in 2009 and keep it going. It gave Russell Jr. a place to skate and something worth working toward.

“My dad was not a skateboarder, but I am,” Kaye said.

He said his dad kept the business going with the intent of turning it over to his son one day. Kaye said when he turned 18, his father let him take on more and more management tasks. He also worked with his father’s residential/commercial painting business, which he used to fund the facility and help make improvements.

By 2019, he took over management of the place and it looked like everything would be good.

Then in March 2020, the pandemic shutdown happened and Wedgewood Ramps had to close for short time. In May 2021, the skate park reopened and Kaye said by summer it really took off.

He said the business is considered a spectator sport arena, and during the pandemic, he was limited to the number of people he could host. He also had to comply with other requirements such as hand sanitizers.

It was tough on Kaye, who said he did suffer business loss during the pandemic, but the popularity of a skate park the size of Wedgewood Ramps spreads fast. In 2019, Kaye began offering monthly memberships similar to gyms in the area. It worked out and today Wedgewood Ramps has more than 100 members and offers walk-in passes.

COMPLAINTS

Making it through the pandemic was one thing, but now the facility faces dealing with a list of complaints from Austintown zoning, which were heard in a case before the Austintown Zoning Board of Appeals on Feb. 24.

Both Kaye and his father were present at the meeting and Kaye told the board he will work at taking care of the problems. One of the issues involved a bring-your-own-beverage event with live music.

“That did happen in 2017,” Kaye said. “That was my fault. It was a bad decision to hold such an event. No more parties or late night events.”

He said the skate park has strict hours of 4 to 10 p.m. weekdays and noon to 10 p.m. on weekends.

The zoning appeals board heard the case involving eight items under the conditional use permit issued June 6, 2013, and amended Nov. 25, 2014. The eight items the board reviewed are hours of operation, noise complaints, subleasing of interior floor space, residential occupancy, bring your own beer events, live music, noncompliance with the fire code, and noncompliance with the Mahoning County Building Inspections Code. The 90 day continuation for the case would give the owners time to obtain the required drawings.

In the meantime, the business can continue operations as long as it complies with the original hours of operation approved in 2013, and if it has no more complaints to police of noise or nuisances, no complaints from other tenants, no subleasing, and bikers and skaters do not ride on sidewalks in front of the businesses in the plaza.

One of the toughest items Kaye is dealing with is having drawings for a skate park addition and the new LED lighting. It required him to seek an architect to draw up the plans to provide to Mahoning County’s building inspector within the 90 days.

“I don’t know if that is possible,” Kaye said. “I am having trouble getting an architect, and when I do, it may take up to six months to get drawings.”

He said if he shows he is close to having the plans done, maybe he can get another extension. If not, he said the facility would simply have to shut down for a few months.

Either way, Kaye wants to cooperate and make Wedgewood Ramps a respectable business and a good neighbor.

POPULAR SPORT

As for the hundreds of skate boarders who are regulars at Wedgewood Ramps, they are hoping the facility remains open. Skateboarders and bicyclists from all over the tri-county area come to Wedgewood Ramps because there are not many skate parks available. One such person is 17-year-old Nico Rossi from Niles.

“If this was not here, I would simply have no where else to go,” he said.

Kaye said the only legal place to ride a skateboard is on the bike trails, which don’t offer the thrills of a ramp track. Wedgewood Ramps has half and quarter pipes, where skateboarders can almost defy gravity.

Kaye also said the sport is growing and he presently has skateboarders from 5 years old to 45. He even gives lessons for those wanting to take up the sport.

For the future, he is hoping to sub-lease some of the space and have related businesses such as a bike shop, or maybe skate apparel. But he must first get the zoning issues addressed.