Selectmen Support Ice Hockey Rink Proposal

Parks and Recreation Commission Chair Ken Driscoll and Demons Youth Hockey President Jack Bloomer made their pitch for an ice hockey rink in Hopkinton to selectmen at their meeting on Tuesday, June 14. Working together in a public/private partnership, the two groups propose to construct an ice rink on the land at Legacy Farms designated as recreational at no cost to taxpayers.

As proposed, the Town of Hopkinton , through the Parks and Recreation, will designate a piece of recreational land for the new arena and secure a 30 year lease for $1 from the Demons Youth Hockey Association. For their part, Demons will conduct fundraising activities for the rink, secure and service bank financing and assume responsibility for all design, development, construction and operating costs of the ice rink. The rink is estimated to cost $5 million and the design being considered looks like a traditional New England barn. Once built, Demons will continue to operate as a non-profit educational organization with a commitment to growing hockey in the town of Hopkinton.

According to Bloomer, between $150,000 - $200,000 per year is currently spent in outside rinks; money that with the new ice rink would stay in Hopkinton. The Hillers Varsity Hockey team is a team without a home rink and that means dealing with inadequate ice time and conditions for practices and games, and travelling to undesirable rink locations. Support for Girls Hockey is non-existent as the current program does not support it and girls currently play in the Boys Varsity and Junior Varsity programs.

A new ice rink in Hopkinton would solve these problems and provide a home rink for Demons Youth Hockey as well. While Demons includes the surrounding towns of Ashland and Holliston and others, Hopkinton youths account for nearly 50% of the enrollments in the Youth Hockey program.

Key to the selectmen’s agreeing to explore this proposal further was the support for the project voiced by Legacy Farms. Project Manager Steven Zieff was on hand to say that Roy MacDowell and Legacy Farms were very interested.

“Roy played semi-pro hockey, his sons played and I played high school hockey,” said Zieff. “You had us at hello. We are very interested neighbors to make sure this happens.”

Also important to the board was the inclusion of other activities besides hockey. Selectman Ben Palleiko said he wants it to be a community asset and to have buy-in and support from the town as a whole. Driscoll assured him that this was the goal and that Parks and Rec would develop a master plan for the project. A survey is also planned to gather feedback from residents.

In the end, a motion was made to support the proposal and to allow the Town Manager to work with Parks and Recreation and Demons Youth Hockey to come up with a preliminary agreement that would allow the ice rink to move forward.

The complete PowerPoint presentation from the meeting is attached below.

In other business, the Board of Selectmen approved a request from Town Treasurer Maureen Dwinnell to refund the Hopkinton High School project bond, saving the town approximately $774,000.

Michael Pierce was appointed to the Board of Appeals for an unexpired term to 2015 and Frank D’Urso was appointed to the Regional Vocational School Committee to complete an unexpired three year term to 2012, and Roger Mezitt’s resignation from the Hopkinton Historic Commission, effective immediately, was accepted.

And, the parade permit for the 4th of July Horrible's Parade was approved.