York Town News
Skating rink, pool plans move forward
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - For fans of hockey or figure skating, it's a long drive to get ice time for practices, exhibitions or games.The York Ice Arena Committee, however, is hard at work to see that is changed.
Back in May, the voters approved requests to allow the Board of Selectmen to negotiate with the MacLaughlin Management Group and the Swim Center of Southern Maine to bring two separate projects - a skating rink and a swimming facility - to the town's land on Bog Road.
In the months that have passed, the pool proposal has come forward, with changes, and is soon expected to begin the planning process with a goal of beginning construction in the spring.
Fans of all things ice-related, meanwhile, have been waiting for details about the skating rink proposal.
This week, members of the York Ice Arena Committee confirmed that, thanks to the overwhelming support at the town vote in May, they are moving forward with the negotiation process between the proposed developer, the Board of Selectmen and the development team for the Bog Road site.
With studies in place indicating the Bog Road parcel can support both a skating arena and a swimming facility, plans are in the works to move forward in the weeks ahead, confirmed Peter Goodwin of the York Ice Arena Committee.
And as York's ice hockey teams currently travel to Biddeford for their home games, while local figure skaters journey to Dover or Exeter, N.H., for skating lessons and public ice time, the members of the all-volunteer committee have demonstrated the demand for such a facility in York already exists.
Like the swimming facility, the arena proposal must include fundraising efforts as part of the process, the committee confirmed, as projected construction costs currently exceed the capital investment the developer had originally anticipated.
To keep the project moving forward, the committee members noted in a joint statement, they are currently working to identify corporate sponsorships as well as grants and private donations to cover the funding gap and fulfill the pledge that no town funds would be sought to build the arena.
The Ice Arena Committee has been meeting with the developer since the May vote, Goodwin confirmed, and they are looking forward to meeting with the Board of Selectmen in 2007 to negotiate a formal lease. The proposed arena is based on a similar facility, Conway Arena in Nashua, N.H., and detailed conceptual design plans will be forthcoming as part of the planning approval process.
Looking to the Swim Center of Southern Maine, the most recent announcement from SCSM partners Kathryn Strand and Ann Grinnell includes a target date of autumn 2007 for the facility to open to the public.
Memberships to the SCSM are still available, at a reduced rate based on cost concerns expressed by local residents, and the complex has been redesigned to meet the funding needs and still provide opportunities for lessons, public swimming time and physical therapy.
"The sale of memberships is vitally important for the project to be on the schedule we have outlined above," Grinnell and Strand wrote in a recent update on the project.
More information and applications for membership at the Swim Center of Southern Maine are available at www.scsminc.com.
