BMX bike park leveled

Kids look around the site of the 309 trails that had been destroyed overnight. AIMEE DILGER Photos/The Times Leader 7/30/2010

Aimee Dilger

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HD Video - Current state of Park

The BMX bike park created by area riders along the Wyoming Valley Levee System in Kingston was leveled early Friday morning by Luzerne County workers.

When kids started showing up to the park they call “309 Trails” they couldn’t believe what they saw. The site that just a day before and for years before that had 30 ramps and three trails was now level. Only tire tracks from the bulldozer remained.

Jim Brozena, executive director of the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority, said the county did what it had to do because of serious liability issues.

“It was determined that the park was located on lands owned by the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority and the other issue we had was that the area is also covered with wetlands that are controlled by the federal government,” Brozena said. “We checked with our insurance carriers and our solicitors and they recommended we remove the hazard immediately.”

Several teenagers who showed up at the site were angered and amazed that their park was destroyed without warning and without any promise of the county providing a venue for them to use.

“All we do is come here and ride and dig,” said one teenager who declined to give his name. “I just can’t believe it.”

Joe Hoinski, 15, of Forty Fort, gathered shovels the kids used to build the ramps and piled them into a wheelbarrow. Even a large old tire that swung from a tree was removed by the county workers.