After years of struggling to build a place that they can call home, Athens skateboarders will be spending less time in their concrete sanctuary as budget cuts hack away at the park’s operation hours.

The Skate Park of Athens on Lexington Road within the East Athens Community Park has had to reduce hours as a result of budget cuts from local government. In fact, all local and public athletic facilities will now open at 9 a.m. on Saturday instead of 8 a.m., and noon instead of 9 a.m. on Sundays.

“They cut back on the most prized time to skate, and it doesn’t make any sense at all,” said local skater Jason Thrasher. Thrasher, 39, was the representative to the city for a large group of skaters who wanted the park built five years ago.

The park opening was the culmination of two years of lobbying, planning and fundraising by Thrasher and a horde of motivated skaters. Thrasher’s group raised $45,000 to help build the park and, with financial contributions by local government and a $10,000 grant given by the Tony Hawk Foundation, the park officially opened on April 16, 2005.

Since then, the park has prospered. The park hosted the final stop on the Tony Hawk Secret Skatepark tour in September 2005, drawing 5,000 people to see professional skaters like Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist and Bam Margera take on the 14,000-square-foot park.

According to Thrasher, the park has become a stop for many traveling pro skaters since then.

“We’ve had professional skaters cruise through, hit it and leave town without anybody knowing they were there except the few lucky people who were out there with them,” Thrasher said.

Traveling pros aside, the park stays busy enough with locals.

“When the sun goes down we’ll have 30 to 40 people down at the skate park on any given day,” said Camille Branch, program specialist for Athens-Clarke County Leisure Services. “Even when it’s 90 degrees you’ll find at least two or three people out there skating.”

Despite the popularity of the park, department-wide budget cuts demanded the change.

“The reduction in hours is due to our budget cuts for the last two years that we’ve had to abide by,” Branch said.

Randy Haygood, athletic director for Athens-Clarke County Leisure Services, said their department’s budget had been cut by 20 to 25 percent in the past two years, largely as a result of the recession.

“We didn’t want to affect any of our programs that we have, that was our ultimate goal,” Haygood said. “We don’t have activities scheduled out there [on weekend mornings, so] open play and free play time was one of the only places we could cut.”

Thrasher said it would have been preferable to close the park on a weekday, when kids are in school, rather than a popular time to skate on the weekend.

“That was kind of disappointing that they did that,” Thrasher said.

Candler Woods, a University junior, was disappointed to hear about the cutback in hours as well.

“I’m not on a schedule with my skating, so I don’t plan to go out there on Sunday mornings, but some people do,” said Woods, who said part of the reason he moved to Athens four years ago was for the park.

For him, saving on park maintenance by cutting hours for the rest of the park is reasonable, but “unlocking the gate is all you have to do for the skate park,” he said.