GREENWICH — On one facet is a bunch of ice skating followers who need an up-to-date, NHL-size rink on the town. On the opposite facet is a bunch of veterans who’re afraid that development would hurt a close-by park.
With preliminary design plans newly unveiled, the difficulty of changing the getting older Dorothy Hamill rink is now as heated as a hockey brawl.
“They made us the enemy,” stated Don Sylvester, head of the Byram Veterans Affiliation. “We’re all for a brand new rink. It’s how they’re doing it that we’re objecting to. They created this stress.”
The “they” that Sylvester refers to is the committee overseeing the challenge, which has backed the present design for a brand new 40,500-square-foot municipal ice rink on the positioning of the Strazza baseball area.
Sylvester and different veterans are involved about what development of a brand new rink so near Eugene Morlot Park would imply for the 13 memorial bushes planted there to honor Byram veterans killed in fight. As a substitute, they would favor to see the present rink renovated.
“It is a devoted park. … The park was given for the only real function of being open house,” stated David Wold, one other Byram veteran.
However Invoice Drake, a member of the city Board of Estimate & Taxation in addition to the committee chair, has repeatedly stated the park and the bushes wouldn’t be touched. And, he stated, constructing a brand new one close by would permit the prevailing rink to stay in operation throughout development whereas a renovation may render the rink out of fee for as much as three seasons.
“There are millions of customers of this facility,” Drake stated. “In our city we’d by no means undertake some plan that put all of the golfers out of their exercise for one season, a lot much less three, or all of the baseball gamers. There are extra skaters than baseball gamers on this city. We have now outstanding recreation alternatives on this city, and this city has a tradition of encouraging recreation. … We have now to discover a consensus that doesn’t spoil three seasons of exercise for hundreds of customers.”
Why is a renovation or substitute of the ice rink wanted? Past the necessity for modernization, the 50-year-old Dorothy Hamill Skating Rink has an ice slab that’s not regulation measurement.
“The brand new ice meets the laws for the whole lot from youth hockey to NHL to what the usual is all through the state,” city Superintendent of Development Alan Monelli stated. “Anybody performing ice skating occasions or determine skating occasions will discover the usual measurement.”
The brand new rink, which may very well be a $17 million challenge, would additionally boast new locker rooms, loos with showers, a lounge space for placing on skates, improved seating and higher vitality effectivity.
“We’re going to construct a greater rink,” Drake stated. “The rink is undersized. It doesn’t have showers. It’s to not code. It’s 50 years previous, and it’s past its helpful life. We’re going to get a brand new and higher Strazza Subject out of this, too, with a full dimension area oriented the proper technique to the solar. Proper now, the left fielder within the afternoon is wanting proper into the solar.”
The concept is to demolish the present rink as soon as the brand new is accomplished and put a brand new Strazza Subject with enhancements as a replacement.
Drake stated the challenge additionally would permit for “correct street entry” from West Putnam Avenue, assuaging visitors and security worries on Sherman Avenue and Sue Merz Means, the place the rink is positioned.
Nonetheless, opponents of the brand new rink worry that will merely shift the burden towards the place they reside. Residents have vocalized worries about how development would impression visitors move across the close by McKinney Terrace advanced and the way changing the ball area with a constructing would have an effect on neighbors.
“A constructing right here on the sector goes to blot out the solar for all of the neighbors,” close by resident Roselyn Nicastro stated.
Sylvester added, “You’re taking away the openness of a park. While you look out, it’s open house. As soon as you set a constructing there, it’s gone. There isn’t a extra park.”
Last choices on what is going to occur with a brand new rink are removed from settled.
The present design, put collectively by SLAM Collaborative, will go earlier than the Planning and Zoning Fee subsequent month for dialogue.
However on Thursday, First Selectman Fred Camillo stated he, personally, want to hold the rink the place it’s. However, he stated, the substitute timeline would should be shortened.
“To that finish, we’re going to be having a few conferences within the subsequent few weeks with individuals who suppose we are able to get this challenge accomplished in a short time, so that you just don’t have these video games performed off website for too lengthy,” Camillo stated. “There’s lots to go on nonetheless, however I need that as one of many choices. … We’ve heard the work on the rink may take three years or two years, and there’s an individual from the NHL we’re working with that’s going to assist us. They suppose they’ll get it accomplished lots faster than that.”
