The church would use proceeds of the sale to build a new access road and upgrade athletic fields.

LEWISTON – Holy Family Church hopes to trade its old ice rink and tennis courts for easy access to Farwell Street.

The church has been negotiating with Maine Family Credit Union to sell about 1.5 acres, including the rink area, tennis courts and a cinder block hut at the end of the property.

“We’ve been talking about building the road for a couple of years,” Father Andrew Dubois said. “This gives us a way to pay for it.”

Dubois said the church hopes to sell the rink to the credit union next door in exchange for the rights to build a road to Farwell Street. That will give parishioners a safe way to leave church on Sunday mornings. Currently, they have to brave Sabattus Street traffic directly.

“We have an average of 1,600 parishioners on Sunday, between four Masses,” Dubois said. “That creates a dangerous situation for the people, especially if they try to turn left onto Sabattus Street. This gives those people an actual traffic light to use.”

Proceeds from the sale will be used to build the road and fix up the church’s athletic fields. The credit union plans to build a parking lot and leave some space for future expansion.

“It works for everybody here,” said Credit Union President Ronald Fournier. “We don’t have immediate plans to expand, but this does allow that opportunity. And that’s something we don’t have right now.”

Neighbor Paul Grandmaison disagrees. He’d like to see the old rink preserved and rebuilt as an arena for local youth hockey.

“Given the history of hockey in this area, you’d think we’d have more rinks for our kids to use,” he said. “But we really don’t have that many. And now, we’re going to tear this one down.”

Fournier said that claim wasn’t fair.

“We’re not taking anything away from area youth because it doesn’t get used now,” he said. “It hasn’t been used in a number of years.”

Dubois said youths will get more use out of the refurbished fields than the rink, anyway. The fields can be used by local sports leagues during the summer, he said.

“The problem with them has been the drainage,” Dubois said. “You can’t use them the first day after a rain storm because they’re too wet. So if we fix the drainage, the area youth can use them for nine months out of the year. The rink, if it were used, is only good for a few weeks each year.”

Fournier said the church and the credit union have all but settled the deal and hope to begin work next spring. The new road could be ready next fall.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.