LATHROP – It’s the Disneyland of skateboard parks.

It has rails and lips and boxes and spines and lines galore. The concrete is fresh and smooth, and every possible detail was gone over with a fine-toothed comb before construction made the dream complex a reality for skateboarders in Lathrop and every other town in the area with the means to get there.

So what to do with the park on 7th Street?

The aboveground, treated-wood complex still has its fans – people have come forward at recent city council meetings asking that the park, which services those living on the east side of the community – but it also requires an extensive amount of upkeep and maintenance.

And it’ll take a vote of the council to extend its life.

Tonight the fate of the park rests on a decision that city staff is recommending will include removing the existing park as it stands today and coming back with options to either rebuild or replace it with something that’s more maintenance friendly.

That’ll take money.

The other option on the table is simply removing it and closing the facility indefinitely.

Skateboarders were so eager to test the new digs at the Lathrop Generations Center that even before the concrete work was completed they were jumping the fence at night and skating around open rebar in the bottom of the pools. Workers had to leave as much of the concrete as possible covered.

In the days before the park was officially open, the sheer number of people that turned out made it nearly impossible to prevent them from essentially overriding the official plans.

Whether that same interest exists in terms of a rebuilt or reformatted park on the east side of the community remains to be seen.

Regardless of the decision, the current park on 7th Street, as it stands, will be shuttered because of the need for extensive repairs.

The costs associated with renovation or replacement will be brought back to a future council meeting for consideration.