Skateboarding has lived strong for generations of skaters growing up in Lewiston. The problem came when skateboarding took to the streets, resulting in our cement park.

In more recent times, skateboarders of Lewiston have weaned off thrashing street spots and the skate park, especially because police patrolled the Park Street, Main Street and Lisbon Street areas during the first half of most days.

A city ordinance in Lewiston reads: No skateboarding on the streets or sidewalks.

The rules and regulations of the skate park should be enforced more clearly and more positively stated. Some of the rules broken most commonly among the people in the skate park are smoking, littering food and drinks, bikes and loitering with no skateboard, scooter or roller skates.

There are children learning in the skate park most times. BMX bikers got permission from police to ride in the skate park as long as they are not in the way of skateboarders.

In 2012, the Lewiston Police Department stopped enforcing the skate park rules. In 2013, skateboarders contacted the police about the bikers in the skate park. The skateboarders were told to contact Lewiston city officials in the Parks and Recreation Department. People there said to call the police.

Skateboarders then took the problem upon themselves to maintain a positive norm in a skateboarding environment.

The city of Lewiston has helped maintain the park and corrected problems within its concrete. It is up to the skateboarders to keep it clean and safe. Water bottles that are returnable are not a problem in the skate park because bottle collectors pass by often and take them.

The problem is the trash.

There are trash cans all through Kennedy Park and by the fence at the skate park.

A big sign on the fence with big red letters by the gate says “No bikes allowed.” The sign was vandalized and the letters were painted back on with a marker.

My proposal is that the SLAM Lewiston skate park become a positive place to learn, grow and socialize for young people of Lewiston. But help is needed to make the skate park a place worth being, and to remain for generations of skateboarders, scooters and bladers.

The Lewiston police should monitor the park efficiently and effectively. They can help create models and mentors for the skate park. And there should be no more smoking marijuana in the 9-foot bowl where skaters come flying through.

I slammed a kid on my board a couple weeks ago. He was getting high in the bowl and I couldn’t see him behind the coping.

Bryan LeClair lives in Lewiston.