Since the Cortez Skate Park’s opening on Aug. 11, the cement structure has suffered two major acts of vandalism — leaving skateboarders, in-line skaters and Parks and Recreation employees in a bad mood.

"I don’t know why anyone would want to do this. We finally got a park and somebody is going to screw it up," said Brian MacPherson, a Cortez skateboarder, on Wednesday.

Parks and Recreation Director Chris Burkett said that, since last week, vandals have broken glass bottles in the bottom of the skate park, poured roughly a gallon of hydraulic fluid onto the cement and tipped over a number of trash cans in the area. "It’s really too bad," Burkett said.

He said that patrols may be increased and a surveillance video camera may be installed in the future in order to alleviate the problems.

At Tuesday night’s city-council meeting, Burkett addressed a number of other issues facing the park, such as cleaning up litter, restricting profanity and enforcing the park’s rules — which include prohibitions against bicycles, tobacco, drugs, alcohol, food, glass containers, loud noise and foul language.

Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said the police department has been sending officers to the park a couple of times a day and would continue to do so later into the evening as a result of the vandalism, which has been occurring after dark.

Cortez City Council member Jim Herrick said that offensive language has especially been a problem at the park. "There has been language down there that has even opened up this roofer’s eyes," Herrick said.

Herrick said it seems like the kids are having a lot of fun at the new park but there is a mix of older and younger kids and the rules about profanity need to be enforced.

"It’s their park and they can either preserve it or they can ruin it," he said.

"We would like to have the skaters patrol themselves," Burkett told the council Tuesday night. However, on Wednesday morning the Parks and Recreation director found himself standing near a puddle of hydraulic fluid.

Whether or not skateboarders were responsible for the vandalism remains a mystery to the city and local law officers.

In the minds of some skateboarders, though, there is no question.

"There is no way a skateboarder would do this," MacPherson said after waiting three hours to skate on Wednesday morning while crews cleaned up the mess.

Other skateboarders said that the local BMX bikers, who are angry about being banned from the skate park, may have caused the damage.

"But this is a skate park, not a bike park," MacPherson said. "When the bikes wreck inside the skate park, their pedals and pegs chip up the cement," he said, adding that there is a bike park right around the corner. "I am a biker myself — but when I want to bike I will go to the bike park," he said.

On Wednesday afternoon many of the skaters were concerned that expansions, which were planned for the skate park, could be canceled if the vandalism continues. The vandals are going to ruin it for everyone, they said.