Three giant slides built into a hillside at Erie’s Frontier Park have been shut down by city officials — in large part because people claiming they were injured on the slides have indicated they could file lawsuits against the city.

Chuck Zysk, the city’s public works director, confirmed to the Erie Times-News on Wednesday that the 40-foot slides were closed to the public on Aug. 19 “and we’re having a third-party independent engineer coming down to inspect them.” 

The slides, which have become a popular attraction at the city-owned westside park, will be closed until further notice, Zysk said. 

Zysk said Mayor Joe Schember’s administration made the decision to close the slides after the city received “three notices of intent” in recent months from parties indicating they are considering lawsuits against the city because of injuries suffered on the slides.

The Frontier Park slides opened to the public in October 2021 after more than four years of planning, construction and safety checks. 

The Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier Park raised the $450,000 to design and build the slides, but the city, as owner of Frontier Park, assumed ownership of the slides.

L.E.A.F. is the nonprofit that manages the 33-acre green space for the city of Erie.

The slides were closed on the advice of the city’s insurance carrier, Travelers Insurance, which is overseeing the upcoming inspection, Zysk said.  

There is no timetable for completing that analysis or reopening the slides, Zysk said.

“They’re going to go over the slides to look at their safety and to determine whether it’s safe for them to be open,” Zysk said.  “ I don’t know how long that turnaround will take. But we feel it’s in our best interest to close the slides down until we get a third party to come in and do that independent analysis.”

Vern Peterson, L.E.A.F.’s executive director, said: "I was informed last Friday that the city was closing the slides as per their insurance carrier. The moment it was opened to the public, it became the city's. The city was invited to all construction meetings and L.E.A.F. and the contractors completed every request before opening.

"Today," Peterson said, "I feel sad."

The slides are located just south of the Frontier Park playground off West Sixth Street, west of L.E.A.F.'s offices.

The previously overgrown hillside was once a dumping ground for bricks.

The three sides consist of a middle slide, made up of two straight chutes, and one curvy slide on either side.

The attraction is called The Griff, after its primary benefactor, Erie businessman Rick Griffith, a L.E.A.F. board member. 

Griffith came up with the idea for the project after seeing similar big slides throughout the United States, including in New York City. Griffith donated $125,000, plus the construction stones, for the project. 

Grants and private donations rounded out the funding.

City Solicitor Ed Betza said that if someone is considering a lawsuit against a municipality, “you many times provide a notice of a potential claim, and that preserves your right to sue.”

He said the city has received letters from lawyers representing citizens “about people suffering some level of injury from the slides,” Betza said. “They’ve put us on notice about a potential problem and we need to address it.”

Betza said at least one person claims to have suffered a back injury on the slides; another claims a tailbone injury.

Betza said he believes all of the complaints have been lodged with the city within the last six months.  

He added that the city approved final plans for the slides in mid-October 2021 and inspected them before the slides were opened to the public. 

The slides are recommended for riders older than 5, and L.E.A.F. advises that children should be accompanied by an older person when they ride.

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNflowers.