COOS BAY — Skaters aren’t the only people who appreciate the new skate park in Mingus Park. Some nearby neighbors like it, too.

Yvonne Budiselich enjoys knowing local children have a place to go to while away their last few weeks of summer vacation. Paul Taylor said he thinks there’s been less noise since the new park opened in May. And Carol Young listens to the sounds of wheels rolling around the park bowls and smiles. It reminds her of the sound of downhill skiing.

“The sound hypnotizes me,” she said. “I can see how they love it.”

That’s not to say there haven’t been some problems. Police have responded to between 20 and 30 calls since the park opened. They’ve included calls about loud music, minors with alcohol and reports of marijuana use. Coos Bay police Capt. Cal Mitts said he doesn’t condone everything that has happening there, but it’s not unexpected.

“It’s a new local spot for kids to be around,” he said. “We’ve been monitoring it and continue to do that.”

Police are getting some help from a $35,400 federal Department of Justice grant to install surveillance cameras around the park.

City Manager Chuck Freeman said the city will put cameras in the skating area as well as other places in the park, such as the restrooms. Police dispatchers will be able to watch the park, and once equipment has been installed in cruisers, officers on duty will, too.

“I think the cameras will be a huge help,” Freeman said.

So does Rick Gladden, a neighbor who hasn’t enjoyed the upgraded skate park.

“I just think it was the wrong location to put a skate park,” he said.

He has spoken to people in Reedsport, who told him surveillance cameras cut down on problems in a skate park there. Still, Gladden is disappointed the city chose to build the new skate park in the same location as the old one. He has noticed more vandalism in the area since the park opened, and noise from the park wakes him at night.

He suggested the city could have put the park along the waterfront. He suggested the old McAuley Hospital will be harder to develop because of its proximity to the skate park.

Taylor, who has lived across the street from the park for the past four years, said he hears the skaters, but it hasn’t been bad. Before the new park was built, he’d hear people skating at 1 in the morning. That doesn’t happen anymore.

“It’s actually been better, whatever they’ve got going,” he said.

The South Coast Softball Association, which plays its games next to the skate park, hasn’t had any problems with skaters, said commissioner Don Ross. Sometimes a home run ball will mysteriously vanish, but nothing significant has ever developed between the two groups, he said.

Young is concerned about skaters who don’t wear helmets, and Budiselich noted that some kids don’t look when riding to the park. But having a new facility is a good thing, they said.

“They need to have something to do,” said Young. “It’s up to the kids to take care of it.”