The city closed its Bowling Green Skate Park on Friday, and it will remain closed until Monday so that graffiti can be removed.

City officials also hope the temporary closure of the park at 200 Sixth Ave. will encourage skate park patrons to come forward with the identity of the person creating the graffiti.

The skate park was cleaned of graffiti earlier in the week, but on Friday a maintenance man arrived and found more graffiti with the paint still wet, according to Ernie Gouvas, director of parks and recreation.

It is suspected that the same person is responsible for painting graffiti at the skate park multiple times because the same types of marks that were previously cleaned off were painted this time, he said.

“They need to be caught and punished, that’s for sure,” Gouvas said.

A vehicle was seen leaving the skate park as the maintenance man arrived, and police have been notified of the problem, Gouvas said. “I don’t think it’s one of the locals,” he said.

The graffiti will be cleaned off Monday morning, but the skate park will be closed until then in the hope that someone will come forward who knows the identity of the person responsible for the graffiti, Gouvas said.

“It will send a message,” he said.

Repeated graffiti has become a problem at the park since April, Gouvas said.

Cleaning the graffiti takes a lot of man hours and is difficult on workers, especially in very hot conditions, Gouvas said. The paint has to be cleaned off with chemicals so as not to damage the surface for those that use the skate park.

The strategy of temporarily closing the skate park was used several years ago, he said. At the time, graffiti and litter had become a problem at the park. Gouvas said the closure encouraged regulars at the park to take better care of it.

“We take a lot of pride in how it looks,” he said.

Ricky Beauvais, 19, of Bowling Green, said the closure of the skate park over the weekend feels like a punishment.

“I was kind of mad, honestly,” he said.

He goes to the skate park every day that he’s not busy working to either skateboard or in-line skate, Beauvais said. It’s a chance for him to clear his mind, he said.

He has noticed some graffiti at the skate park, though he’s never been around to see it done, Beauvais said.

The graffiti has never been a problem for Beauvais, he said. “There’s always graffiti,” he said. “It’s just a normal thing at a skate park.”

Tim Bernier, 30, of Bowling Green, also believes that graffiti art is a natural fit for the skate park.

“It’s all just counterculture,” he said.

Bernier said he would like to see a wall at the park where graffiti is allowed. Such walls were available in his hometown, Eugene, Ore.

Bernier is considering putting together a petition to set up a free wall for graffiti, he said. The wall could serve as an artistic outlet for many in Bowling Green.

“It’s a collage of, like, the community’s artistic soul,” he said.

The bar Bernier owns, Rocky’s, is a place where he can use his skills as a graffiti artist, but it’s disappointing how criminalized the practice has become, he said.