YOUNGSTOWN Official asks for hearing on ice rink

The park says it will feature alternative winter activities at the Wick Recreation Area.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- City Councilman Michael R. Rapovy, D-5th, said he is disappointed in Mill Creek MetroParks' decision to close the 34-year-old ice rink.
Rapovy requested that council's park and recreation committee convene a hearing on the decision to close the rink because of refrigerant leaks within the 11 miles of concrete-encased pipe within the rink's ice-chilling system.
"It is unfortunate that the park service failed to make the necessary long-range plans to improve the facility, considering that the local taxpayers have gone to the ballot to support the MetroParks. This decision was made at the public's expense without getting their input," Rapovy said Monday.
The rink shouldn't close solely for economic reasons, he added.
Rather than continuing its expansion, the park district should refocus on its core, which lies within the city, Rapovy said. "Why should another one of our most valuable assets be abandoned?" he asked.
Other activities
"It's not that we don't want to do anything. We're going with the sledding and cross-country skiing," adjacent to the ice rink, replied Jac Lynn Ridel, vice chairwoman of the park's board of trustees.
She was referring to the park's announced intentions of manufacturing snow for sledding at the Wick Recreation Area, weather permitting, and the availability of cross-country skiing at the Par Three Golf Course, which will be lighted for night use.
The park will keep the ice rink pavilion open for sledders and cross-country skiers as a warming center with a food concession stand and fireplace. Sledding and cross-country skiing will be free.
The outdoor rink has been losing customers and money in recent years and will be costly to repair, Ridel said, attributing the loss of skaters in part to the opening of an indoor skating facility in Boardman in 1997. "We will have to wait and see what we'll do next year," Ridel said.
Susan Dicken, park executive director, said warmer weather in recent years has shortened the skating season. The estimated cost of rebuilding and reopening the ice rink would be at least $500,000, Dicken said.
She said it's too early for her to conclude whether the rink is worth rebuilding and reopening.
The rink lost $67,000 last season, and patronage has declined from 28,000 when it first opened in 1968 to 5,000 to 7,000 skaters last season, she said.