With the help of private and public donations, the Windham Skate Park is currently under renovation due to heavy usage and general wear and tear of the wooden ramps.

Windham police officer Matthew Cyr contracted skater and carpenter Josh Benson of Gorham to do the needed repairs. Benson, who helped build the Windham Skate Park back in 1999, is now hard at work constructing three new ramps that he says will be a little more advanced than the old ones.

Cyr manages the skate park along with Windham Parks and Recreation. Cyr is also part of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (DARE). As a DARE officer, he tours schools teaching the dangers of drugs and alcohol to many of the kids he sees at the skate park. Cyr believes that it is “human nature to push the envelope” and that kids will always want to take risks. He sees skateboarding as a “positive risk activity” as opposed to “negative risk activities” like drug and alcohol consumption. The skate park provides a supervised place for the kids to have fun and take risks on the ramps.

During summer vacation, 50 to 100 skaters visit the skate park each day, averaging 5,000 to 9,000 visits a year. Cyr believes the skate park helps keep these kids out of trouble and the statistics agree with him. Since the skate park first opened, the juvenile crime rate has dropped 36 percent in Windham.

The skate park was due to open on April 1st, but Cyr delayed that date for the necessary renovations. Pressure-treated wood is being used as opposed to the regular soft wood used in the initial construction. Hopefully, Cyr said, the new wood will weather better than the soft wood so the boards will stay strong for many years to come. When the renovations are complete, the skate park will be open throughout the week with brand new ramps for skaters to try their tricks on.

Josh Benson cuts pressure-treated wood for new skate ramps at the Windham Skate Park. Benson, a fellow skater, has been contracted to repair the park.