HARRISVILLE — Wheelchair users and disabled residents will again be able to access Harrisville’s skate park once bollards are placed by the gated entrance, council decided at a meeting Tuesday, Sept. 5, before the former chairman of the parks and recreation department left the borough hall.

Council member Mary Ann Hughes, who was removed as chairman of the parks and recreation department before the meeting began, and another council member Russ Stemmerich left during the meeting after a interaction where Stemmerich directed a series of expletives to Hughes.

Stemmerich directed the expletives to Hughes after she made a remark about the skate park.

Stemmerich, left, and Hughes left shortly afterward. A community member also left the meeting after the interaction.

The council was also to discuss placing security cameras in the skate park, a topic Hughes had requested be put on the agenda, but following the two departures, council did not bring the issue to a vote.

Before the interaction, council said the gate to the skate park on Wick Avenue would remain locked until the bollards are placed by the larger entrance. In the meantime, the park is open and children can still skate by entering the park through smaller side entrances, which are not wheelchair accessible.

Earlier, community members shared concerns with one another that disabled residents and seniors supervising their grandchildren would not be able to access the park from its narrow entrances.

Placing the bollards would make it possible for wheelchair users and residents with limited mobility to enter the skate park while discouraging people from driving motorized vehicles on park equipment. Council will also purchase cold patch to repair cracks in the park.

Harrisville’s maintenance department closed the gated entrance of the borough’s skate park in late August after receiving reports that a motorized vehicle had been driven into the park, posing a liability to the borough.

Council reconvened to vote on the placement of bollards after discussing the status of the skate park in an executive session. Council did not provide a date for when the bollards will be placed.

After the meeting, Dave Evans shared that council is committed to expediting the process for borough residents.

Following the executive session, council also motioned to pay borough employees a minimum of two hours for after-hours call-outs. Borough employees will also receive time-and-a-half pay for any work done outside of regular hours.

Evans noted this would address the inconvenience of being called after hours; maintenance staff is sometimes called out as early as 3 a.m., he said.

Harrisville will boast commercial-grade Christmas lights this winter.

Council proposed $5,000 be allocated for the repair of lights and sandblasting of Christmas ornaments; a total of 20 ornaments will be sandblasted and coated at a cost of $60 each by Limitless Laser and Coatings.

The project will be covered through the borough’s unspent COVID-19 relief funds, council said.

“It says something about the town, the way it looks,” Harrisville resident John Elmer said at the meeting.