Same Time Next Year
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It’s been nearly a year since I wrote about the problems that come from
having 11 bosses who are not on the same page about anything, as well as
suggestion...
5 months ago
January 10, 2012
City Hall Ice Skating Rink
On a serious not (I saw this in a post), what is the status on this? Has ice ever been put down on this surface?
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City Manager Michael V. O'Brien told the City Council last night that the infrastructure needed to make and maintain ice on the 140-foot-by-100-foot oval will not be in place by this winter.
He said construction of the pavilion that will house the chiller equipment for the skating oval, as well as provide air conditioning of City Hall, will not begin until spring.
In the meantime, the manager said, city officials are looking into installing a temporary system to make and maintain ice.
Mr. O'Brien said city officials are pursuing the idea of securing sponsors who would pay for that equipment so there would be no cost to the city.
"This is something that is still in its infancy," Mr. O'Brien said. "We are methodically plodding forward."
Councilor-at-Large Gary Rosen broached the issue of the status of the skating rink while the council was discussing several economic development initiatives.
Construction of the skating rink/performance oval was actually completed last year, as part of the renovation of the Common. But the skating rink lacked the ice-making equipment.
It had been hoped that the infrastructure for the skating rink/performance oval would be installed this year so the rink could be used this winter, but that phase of the Common project has since been put off until next spring.
Mr. O'Brien said the city has had to be concerned about past and potential future cuts in state aid.
"We have to be sensitive to our fiscal situation," the manager said.
The skating rink/performance oval has been a source of much controversy since it was constructed. It became the subject of some public ridicule last winter when it could not be used, and people have questioned the need for it and whether it was a wise expenditure.
Mr. Rosen said he firmly believes the skating rink will become a popular destination point and bring people downtown. Instead of letting the rink sit dormant for another winter, he and other councilors have asked whether the skating rink could be used without the chiller equipment - instead, relying on Mother Nature to make the ice.
City officials tried to put together a strategy last winter that would allow for public skating, without the ice-making equipment, but those plans never materialized.
Credit: TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
Whither the long-awaited skating rink on the Common behind City Hall?
That was the question raised by Councilor-at-Large Frederick C. Rushton at Tuesday night's council meeting. He wants to know whether people will be able to ice skate there this winter.
What has been holding up the project has been the installation of ice plant and chiller equipment for the ice rink.
The answer Mr. Rushton received from the city manager was not the most encouraging. He said he would get back to the council with a report on where things stand.
Construction of the skating rink on the Common was completed in 2009, but skating enthusiasts have not been able to use it in any winter since then because it does not have the infrastructure needed to make and maintain ice on the 140-foot-by-100-foot oval.
City public works officials had been working with the state Department of Transportation on design documents for the phase of the Common renovation project that includes the construction of the Blackstone Valley Bikeway Pavilion, which will house the ice plant and chiller equipment for the rink and event oval, and air conditioning for City Hall.
30 Sep 2011
Pernet's Green Island ice rink isn't doing to good this year. In the previous four years (I believe), the rink was a success. Every November the Carpenter's Union builds the walls of the rink (half of the Crompton Park tennis court), Holy Cross football players lay down the lining and the fire department uses a hose to fill the rink with water. Mother nature usually does the rest, with the help of some volunteers. Last year, Pernet purchased a "little zambini" to help with the ice. This year the ice has not been safe enough to skate on. The rink was also recently vandalized.
tHIS RINK WILL BE THE PROVERBIAL MONKEY ON mIKE oBRIEN's BACK before all is said and done.
Poor Tom Hoover had that Rogers(?) Memorial re-hab project over at Park and Highland St that lasted 8-9 years, but at least tehre was a plausible excuse b/c there were issues with the contractor(s), lawyers, and the courts........if my memory is corrct? As a T&G blogger mentioned, I wonder if Tom has been reading the T&G the last 2 months or so. What goes around comes around
Is that thing really a 140 feet by 100 feet oval? Always looked to me more like a circle? My 10th grade geomerty course said a circle can not be both 100 ft and 140 ft? Is the CC and the public getting a circle j+++ on this issue?
Was Pernets Green (no pun) Island ice rink a PLA job with prevailing wages? And what happens when my high rise apt complex goes up in flames and fire dept equipment is deployed building an ice rink?
I saw WFD on Sunday doing what appeared to be the exact same thing at a school with the huge boom truck....boom extended at least 50 ft in the air. File under training session or temporary winter infrastructure operation?
But I mean bottomline, who builds an ice rink w/o the equipment to make ice and if money is the issue, we got no problemo with building a gazillion $$$$ sewerage pipeline to bail out Worc Common Grds mess over at May and Main St., but the taxpaying, skating public be dammed.
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