A group of youngsters celebrate a birthday party at the Bethel Community Ice Rink. Bethel Rec Department.
BETHEL — According to Marcy Scanlon, Bethel Recreation director, one lesson is abundantly clear during the first season of the Bethel Community Ice Rink: it takes a village to successfully skate. Volunteers maintain the rink, sometimes scraping in the middle of the night when they get off of work.
“There is a large group of volunteers who have given an unbelievable amount of time this winter to keep this rink’s ice beautiful to skate on and to keep it open now for nine weeks. Nine weeks! That’s dedication,” Scanlon extolled via email on Tuesday.
According to Scanlon, volunteers check on the rink every single day, and at least once a week a team of volunteers meets to resurface the ice. After storms, a group of volunteers mobilize to snowblow, plow, and shovel the rink and the picnic tables that surround it.
And the rink was a community driven idea from its inception. According to Scanlon, there have been attempts in the past to create an ice rink in the town, but this time, the idea had some “umph” – the support of the community.
“We specifically named the rink ‘The Bethel Community Rink’. Bethel Recreation has made it clear from the beginning that to have this rink people needed to step up and help. And they have.”
Last year, a volunteer group proposed the idea to construct a rink to the town of Bethel. The group, which consisted of seven members of the Bethel Recreation board and other community members worked with the Bethel Public Works Department to find a site, eventually deciding on the site of the Ethel Bisbee School, which had been vacant for at least 10 years before the rink was created.
“It is a town-owned property, it’s a quiet location, plenty of parking, easy access to a fire hydrant for water and electricity,” noted Scanlon.
After choosing the site, the public works department completed the initial work; grading the lot to level, which, according to Scanlon, is the key to a successful rink.
“You don’t want two inches of water at one end and ten inches at the other,” she explained.
Night volunteers work to make sure the ice rink is smooth. Bethel Rec Department.
And then came the construction of the rink itself. The rink was purchased from an online retailer and constructed in pieces, put together, as Scanlon said, ‘like Legos.’ The sides are 2 inch by 4 inch plastic boards, held in place by brackets, which can be easily moved for storage in the spring and allow for the installation of more boards if the rec department wants to expand the size of the rink next winter.
According to Scanlon, the total cost of the rink was about $10,000. A portion of the rink was paid for by the public works budget, with the remainder paid for by donations from Norway Savings Bank, the Bethel Rotary Club, The River Fund Maine, and individual donors including the families of Jarred Rice and Phil Sheridan, who dedicated the donations in their memories.
And though the first winter of operations has skated by with relative ease, there have been a few cracks in the ice. Last week, due to high temperatures, the rink was closed off to preserve the ice. An unidentified individual stepped over the caution tape, walked past the hazard cones, and skated, causing damage to the ice that required repair.
“If we close the rink there are only two reasons we are doing so…it is unsafe to skate or we are trying to preserve the ice. I admit I was pretty frustrated last week when I saw that someone walked around and over the caution tapes and cones,” she said.
But the damage was short lived. The next day, the community came together, fixed the damage, and opened the rink the next day, in time for school vacation.
And, according to Scanlon, all that hard work paid off.
“There are many in the community who are thrilled to see the site being used for the youth. It’s within walking distance of Crescent Elementary School so their after school program, the Mahoosuc Kids Association, has walked down a few times this winter. I’m already thinking about summer and what we can do there for the kids,” said Scanlon.
And judging by the response this year, Scanlon stated upgrading the size of the rink is a goal.
“We are looking to make it bigger. A lot of kids in our community learned to skate this winter. They will be ready for a larger rink next year.”
Scanlon said there are a few rules for those interested in utilizing the space to remember. From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday there will be family skating, and no hockey will be allowed. The rink is open everyday, aside from weather events, from dawn to 8 p.m.
And for those interested in volunteering, the first step is joining the “Bethel Community Ice Rink” page on Facebook, where volunteers communicate and plan.
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