Earlier this year, at the City Council meeting on March 27, the Somerville Youth Hockey Association presented their case for restoring the winter ice sheet for skating activities at Founders Memorial Skating Rink.

By Harry Kane

City Councilors rejected a plan from the Ballantyne administration that would transform the ice rink into a multi-purpose recreation hub that eliminates the winter ice sheet.

The fate of Founders Rink hangs in the balance as the city weighs its options following the refusal of a $160,000 appropriation for floorboards that would end ice activities at the skating rink. 

“I was really disappointed with what the administration came up with and presented,” said Ward 2 City Councilor Lance L. Davis at the City Council meeting on June 12. “I found it to be a very well-constructed restatement of the exact same thing we had heard before.”

Founders Rink caters to hockey players, free skating, figure skating, learn to skate programs, and other activities like curling. In recent years, girls’ hockey has become more popular, but without the ice sheet at Founders Rink, programming would be limited.

“It was a very beautifully packaged presentation on using this ice rink for something that is not an ice rink,” said Councilor Davis.

The plan moving forward is to figure out how to best use Founders Rink during the non-winter months while still enabling the space to continue to be used as an ice rink during the wintertime.

“Let me be clear, I have absolutely no objection to using this facility or any other facility for uses for non-winter months,” said Councilor Davis.

Founders Memorial Skating Rink, located at 8 Garden Court, has served as a practice area for a variety of skating programs for all ages since September 2012.

On October 26, 2013, the rink was officially dedicated to five veterans who founded the Somerville Youth Hockey Association in the 1960s. Raymond Deeran, John Doncaster, George Hughes, Joseph Guidi, and James Papaluka were the recipients of that dedication.

Now, just over a decade later, skaters are asking to save the ice sheet for wintertime activities. This past winter, the rink was dark and empty.

“At the end of the day, this is an ice rink. This is what it was built for,” said Councilor Davis. “I don’t feel that this is a plan that makes the best use of the resource that we have, a resource that the taxpayers invested significant money in, not too many years ago.”

The only other ice rink in Somerville is the Veterans Memorial Rink. Shutting down Founder’s Rink would effectively delete half of the ice-skating usage times in the city.

Last winter, the ice sheet wasn’t laid down due to the “high costs and effort involved in preparing and maintaining the rink, making it financially unfeasible,” according to Feb. 11 meeting minutes with DPW Commissioner Jill Lathan.

“We should just continue to put pressure on the administration to open that facility back up for what it was built for,” said Councilor Davis. “We’ve heard time and time again how many folks have benefited from that it many different ways as a recreational facility.”

Olga Fridman was a sponsored speaker at the June 12 City Council meeting. She expressed her frustration that the ice rink would not be accessible for skaters. Fridman would like Founders Rink to be returned to operational status.

“I strongly believe that Somerville can totally do it, that it can be a multi-recreational facility during 12 months. It can be like TD Garden,” said Fridman.

In the past, Founders Rink has been used for other purposes in the warmer months. In the spring of 2016, the Recreation Department temporarily transformed the rink into an indoor turf field for the spring and summer seasons, accommodating sports, free play, and private events.

“I’m not going to vote to shut down 50 percent of the ice in Somerville,” said Ward 3 City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen. “We want this ice rink to exist in the future.”

City Councilor-At-Large Jake Wilson said that he hoped there would be a plan to use this facility year-round. “We have precious few indoor facilities in this city for recreation. The idea of intentionally choosing to shutter one for a chunk of the year, it boggles the mind.”

Councilor Wilson said that the idea of putting flooring down to make “optimal use” of the rink makes sense in the warmer months.

Ward 1 City Councilor Matthew McLaughlin said that “there is a better way forward.” As mentioned, an indoor turf field was used in prior years during the non-winter months, which Councilor McLaughlin said makes sense. That would, unfortunately, cancel pickleball. “If all we lose is pickleball, this is a big win,” said Councilor McLaughlin.

Ward 4 City Councilor Jesse Clingan said that the rink would be needed if girls’ hockey programming were to be added. “If we are going to be trying to increase availability and accessibility of hockey, then we need to make sure we are maintaining the spaces for that specific use.”

Councilor Clingan said he grew up playing hockey in Somerville and that the ice rink is important to the people living in the city. “Somerville is a hockey town. It always has been, and I hope it always will be.”