I am in shock at the high cost to repair Brattleboro’s Ice Arena. The Brattleboro Recreation Department as with almost every other department in Brattleboro keeps getting hit with all these expenses. I read the town meeting notes here, last week. Thank you Chris. Putting all other town business aside reading how our selectboard addressed this issue was comforting.
Seeing how the estimate of repairs obtain by the town had been so far off from the bid received for the job reading that the selectboard had chose to not pull the checkbook out and pay the the extra 120,000 was comforting. The board wanting to step back and access what other options are out there just seems like the most practical thing to do giving the state of economic affairs at the moment.
That Said.
I am curious to know of the many readers here wouldn’t it be nice to start some type of fund raiser to help the town of Brattleboro cover the cost or a good chunk of the cost to keep a key winter sport available to our community. I know as a frequent user of the Brattleboro Ice rink that it is used by people who live within at least a 25 mile radius of Brattleboro. Unlike other winter sports the expence of ice skating is most often taking on by the community. I see some many people adults and children who otherwise would not be active in the winter use the rink as a way to stay active. It be nice for all of us to help Brattleboro keep the rink in good repair so everyone can continue to use it without forcing The town of Brattleboro to pay all the expence of its opperations.
If the Hockey, Speed, Recreational, and figure skaters all come togethermaybe we can come up with some means to help raise some funds so the burden of upgrading the compressors will not be so heavey on the town. Ideas?
fundraisers
The deal the town made is to have the users of the rink pay for it. Taxpayers won’t be footing the bill. The compressor was to be paid over 20 years from user fees. The agreement made at Representative Town Meeting was to loan the money.
The idea of a fundraiser (or fundraisers) to accelerate paying it off is a good idea. Because the timeframe is so long (20 years), some thought and energy could be put into some sort of annual event, like a Music Festival. It could be given time to grow and build into something big.
Rent it out
Music Festival is a start but why not use it for other venues? Maybe rent it out for other events. Gun shows, Home Shows, Car shows. Maybe some things like they do at the Big E.
Thanks Mr.Mike . I wonder if
Thanks Mr.Mike . I wonder if this is possible?
I do like the music festival idea. The park does have several locations for bands to play…. hmmm
Thanks Chris. I missed
Thanks Chris. I missed this. I’ve been brain storming.
summer ice
Groups could also sell iced things at summer events – “buy some ice for the rink.”
Italian ice, snow cones, iced tea, iced cream, etc.
I like Mike’s suggestion of other events. Tag sale/flea market booth rental fees could add up.
ice rink
we recently had an ice rink built on a vacant lot downtown. It cost about 750K and was built by donated money from local merchants and “angels.” the first year, it took off like gangbusters and produces enough revenue to support itself (yearly maintenance.) Since it is located in downtown, it has brought added activity to the shops and restaurants, particularly durting a time of year that is “dead” because it is winter.
Gee
It’s really funny how they can’t do the same at half the cost in creating a downtown skatepark, or utilize the ice rink or there abouts for the same during the summer months instead of sacrifing our neighborhood green playground areas to be filled in with concrete, perfect logic I tell you!
If as you say
its supposed to be self supporting and paid by user fees, why does the town have to “loan” the money for repairs ? The rinks been open 40 or so years. I’d think over that period of time they’d have enough revenue put aside to pay for necessary repairs………or is it not self supporting?
Representative Town Meeting
Representative Town Meeting members voted to loan the money and get paid back over 20 years (prior to the cost increase news). They must have assumed we won’t need that money for anything else.
It seems it is not self
It seems it is not self supporting. I know that there is a fund established many years ago to help sustain the rink. That seems to an expectation that the rink has never been completely self sustaining.
The difficulties of trying to keep a sport accessible to everyone in our community seems to conflict with keeping the structure self sustaining.
There must be a way to keep the rink in good repair while keeping it affordable to use for everyone in our community…
I hope there is a way.