Though 13-year-old Bryan Deraniane always follows the skate park rules at Griffin Park and wears a helmet, he said he has seen some other skaters go without.

“We’ve seen some other kids not wearing their helmets, or they’re wearing hats without stickers,” he said, taking a break to lean against the chain-link fence last week. “They get away with it.”

Still, according to Windham’s Recreation Coordinator Cheryl Haas, the town’s new permitting program – requiring skaters to register with the Recreation Department – has significantly cut down on the number of incidents at the park from previous years. Numerous problems with vulgar language, trash and a disrespectful attitude toward town employees, including local police officers, had left the five-year-old community skate park on the cusp of being closed.

Earlier this year and prior to the opening of the skate park for the season, elected officials recreation department officials decided to make a last ditch effort to cull the bad behavior and disregard to park rules. That translated into having residents fill out an application and sign a rules sheet before having permission to use the park. Nonresidents were required to take a mandatory training class as well. At the end of the process, skaters would receive a sticker permit that must be worn on a helmet at all times within the skate park, giving the town the ability to track those who violated the facility’s rules.

At the time, Haas said she didn’t expect the skaters who were actually causing trouble at the park to go through the trouble of registering and sitting down for a training class. Now as the activity around the skate park quiets down with the end of summer, Haas is calling the registering and permitting process a success.

“I never had to shut (the skate park) down, but we had some issues with trash once or twice this summer,” Haas said. “I think it went very well. We didn’t have many issues, maybe now and then, but I think that’s normal.”

Haas could only remember one incident where the police were called to the park, when a large group of children were skateboarding without helmets, but said the officers were not making the trip to the skate park nearly as often as before.

Lianne Deraniane, Bryan’s mother, said the family had been aware of the skate park’s troubles in the past, but had not seen any issues arise in the couple of times they had come to use the facility over the course of the summer.

“We’ve been living in town for a while and we’re familiar with the problems at the park,” she said. “This (program) is new and It seems like it’s working ... It seems like a really good idea.”

According to Haas, 340 residents and another 210 nonresidents have registered for permits with the town. This past week alone, about 20 residents had put in for a permit, she said. With the park slated to close down on Nov. 15, Haas said she plans to discuss continuing the program next year with the town’s recreation committee.