Lovers of old Gardens park irked by plans for ice rink
Online petition drive seeks to stop demolition
PALM BEACH GARDENS – Plant Drive Park is where Bert Premuroso met his wife, where Danielle Osborne’s 4year-old son got his first taste of skateboarding and where Adam Cranmer taught his sons to ride BMX bikes.
For decades, the 8-acre site behind Palm Beach Gardens High School has been where family memories were made. Now its skate park, basketball courts and softball field are slated for demolition to make way for a $40 million ice rink complex. The City Council approved the project April 4.
Cranmer said he will try to put a stop to it. He started an online petition drive and says it has garnered more than 2,300 signatures. Supporters say they plan to speak out against the project when the City Council meets May 2.
“It would be nice to keep the soul of the city,” said Cranmer, 42, an eight-year Palm Beach Gardens resident. The ice rink complex “can’t be an added value to the community if they are taking something else away.”
Premuroso, now a council member who voted in favor of the rink, said he doesn’t think the council can nullify its decision. The project, however, risks cancellation if its sponsor, the Palm Beach North Athletic Foundation, fails to meet six- and 15-month funding requirements.
Plant Drive Park is one of the city’s oldest parks and sits in one of its oldest neighborhoods, filled with smaller homes dating to the 1960s. Its softball field is the home field for the high school’s softball team and it’s named for Amanda Buckley, the Palm Beach Gardens High Gators standout who was murdered in 2007.
A city report, however, said that in