Graffiti mars just-opened Craig Ranch Regional Park

North Las Vegas was forced to close part of Craig Ranch Regional Park for graffiti cleanup Friday, two weeks to the day after the park’s Nevada Day grand opening.

Officials with the city’s beautification program had planned to rope off the park’s vaunted 65,000-square-foot skate park from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to mop up extensive taggging in the skate park restrooms.

Reached for comment Friday afternoon, city spokeswoman Juliet Casey said workers with the graffiti abatement team would look to wrap up those efforts a few hours early, just in time for the 3 p.m. after-school rush.

Casey said the graffiti problem was limited to the skate park restrooms and did not appear in any of the park’s four concrete skate bowls.

She called the tagging a “cumulative problem” dating back to within a week of the park’s Oct. 25 debut, but said park officials don’t expect it to become a chronic issue.

“It was mostly in the bathrooms, not in the bowls or anywhere where they actually skate” Casey said. “So we’re hoping it’s not an ongoing problem.”

North Las Vegas maintains a full-time graffiti abatement crew under the city’s Development and Community Services Department, as well as a separate fund for Craig Ranch park maintenance.

Casey declined to comment on which city fund would back the park’s first graffiti scrubbing and said she wasn’t sure whether park maintenance staff had joined the city’s abatement team in this week’s cleanup effort.

City Hall is closed Fridays, and neither Parks and Recreation Director Mike Henley nor Community Development Director Frank Fiori could be immediately reached for comment.

Interim City Manager Jeff Buchanan lamented the vandalism in a statement issued Thursday.

“It is truly disappointing to see people treat this facility disrespectfully,” Buchanan said. “My hope is that going forward, we’ll be able to keep the skate park open and free for all to enjoy. “Otherwise, we will have to consider keeping fewer hours to prevent future damages.”

Contact reporter James DeHaven at 702-477-3839 or jdehaven@viewnews.com.