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The city is financially committed to fixing up the Pipeline Skate Park and plans to install surveillance cameras, create an advisory board and install a gate to keep loiterers out at night, officials announced at a meeting Wednesday night.

"To us, it's a worthwhile investment," city parks superintendent Kevin Brady said.

Vandalism, litter and drug and alcohol use at the city-owned park has fueled concern about it in recent months. Juneau Parks and Recreation held a meeting two weeks ago to discuss the problems and possible solutions to keep it viable for skateboarders in the future.

The park can't continue to be a haven for late-night drug and alcohol use, Brady said.

"That's not the place for that," he said. It's a skate park and needs to be a skate park."

Skateboarders say loiterers are using the open, covered structure as a place to party in the middle of the night. Skaters at the last meeting supported closing the park with a gate to keep troublemakers out. A gate will be installed in a matter of days, Brady said.

The city also ordered three surveillance cameras that will be installed within a few weeks, he said. Wiring already has been installed.

The video captured from the cameras will go to the airport, where it will be available to monitor. Zach Gordon Youth Center manager Kristi West, who also oversees the skate park, said the city is considering whether or not to make the video available for the public to view over the Internet.

Jordan Kendall, who has been skating at the park for more than 10 years and also worked at the facility until recently, said he thinks the cameras are a step in the right direction.

"I guess this is a good thing in a way, to keep that (negative) stuff out," he said. "But at the same time, surveillance just in general, I guess, some people will be wary of it. I guess it may change their views of what they do there. The pressure."

Juneau Police Department Lt. Troy Wilson agreed to help organize a skate park advisory board, or "Skate Board." The advisory board will "speak for the larger group" and help with planning, park design and hours of operation, and figure out an adequate art policy for the walls inside the park, he said.

Graffiti has been a significant issue in recent months. Parks and Recreation employees went so far as to whitewash all of the walls recently because the graffiti became too vulgar and offensive. The cleanup drew the ire of some skateboarders because graffiti had been tolerated at the park since it opened in the 1990s.

The board would have the opportunity to help shape the scope of the art problem, Wilson said. He suggested coming up with a "catchy phrase" to describe the allowable art within the structure because of the negative connotations associated with the term graffiti.

"It's a huge canvass," Wilson said.

Kendall, who volunteered to be on the advisory board, said he was glad to hear city officials want to see the park prosper and felt an advisory board is a step in the right direction.

"I think they're on the same level with that and trying to approach it that way is really good," he said.

West and Brady said the city is committed to providing more financial support to restore the park to its former condition, although it was unclear how much financial backing it will receive.

The plan is for a total renovation sometime this winter or early spring, said Zach Gordon Youth Center youth advocate Mike Meersman. He described it as a "new start" for the park.

"The park will be closed until it is totally rebuilt," Meersman said, although the closure likely won't happen until early January.

The city hopes to have a grand reopening of the skate park in the spring. There also will be more police presence around the park to ensure vandalism, littering and drug and alcohol problems do not persist.

"We've got a commitment from the police department to patrol more often than they have been," Brady said.

• Contact reporter Eric Morrison at 523-2269 or e-mail eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.