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Date: 2/7/2022
BECLHERTOWN – With winter in full swing, the Belchertown Recreation Department teamed up with the Department of Public Works (DPW) and Water District to set up an outdoor ice-skating rink at the Chestnut Hill Community School.
Kyle Thibeault, Belchertown’s recreation director, said the idea for the skating rink came from residents asking where they could skate in town.
“I know a couple people had reached out to the Select Board about flooding the common or figuring out where they can ice skate. We have also gotten a couple emails and phone calls about places to ice skate or providing any options,” he said.
When coming up with a location for the rink, Thibeault said he spoke with representatives from the Department of Public Works, Water Department and the Select Board.
“I had spoken to Steve Williams from the DPW and Kevin Williams from the Water Department, and then Ed Bosher, a Select Board member who is our liaison contacted me and we had to figure out a spot that would work well to flood,” he said.
As a result of the discussions, Thibeault said the town settled on the old basketball court at Chestnut Hill School.
“Since we have the two new basketball courts across the way and the older court had some cracks, but it was a pretty decent size because it has the curving to hold some of the water. We went up and looked at the area, talked with Kevin and we came up with a gameplan to have some of the Water Department employees go and try to start flooding the court to see how it would take,” he said.
Prior to the current space, Thibeault said the town used to flood the common for ice skating.
“In years past, they used to try to flood the part of the common closer to the Fire Department end and they had done that in the winters. Since that time, a lot of the ice-skating areas have been weather dependent. We have not had really cold winters with consecutive days to really freeze a good area,” he said.
Because of how much traffic goes through the common for other events, Thibeault said it was not feasible to flood this year.
“I think they are trying to keep people off the common in some regards because when the fair is there it is high traffic, they have a lot of moving parts and they want to keep it in pretty good shape,” he said.
Before warmer temperatures arrive, Thibeault said residents have been utilizing the rink.
“I know there have been a few people we have seen use it, which is good to see but at the end of this week the weather is supposed to be 40 and rain so it will probably end up melting,” he said.
Unlike skating on a pond, Thibeault said you only need a couple inches of ice to skate on the rink over the blacktop.
“Three to 4 inches of water is all you really need and then to give it the glassy coat for ice skating purposes, you are not worried about a lake or pond where somebody may fall through if it is too warm and checking the depth or thickness of the ice with that,” he said.
Looking ahead to future winters, Thibeault said the department is also looking at different areas to flood.
“We are trying to see if this area works and then moving forward looking at other areas or other avenues to get some sort of space or some sort of bladder to flood rather than just the black top because there is some concern because the blacktop heats up quicker, but we just want to provide an avenue for residents to get out and ice skate in the wintertime,” he said.
At this point, Thibeault said the town was not planning on any more water to the rink to freeze.
“We probably will not add any additional water because the Water Department is allowing us to do this without charging for the community purposes just to see this winter. With that, it is not an endless source but we want to see what is going to hold. The equipment we looked at holds between 13,000 and 16,000 gallons of water,” he said. “If it stays cooler and the water holds then hopefully, we can continue for another couple weeks here at the very least.”
Thibeault said he hopes the town can find an area conducive to ice-skating in the winter.
“If the weather is there and we can find an avenue to get the equipment or a better space in regard to just prepping a space over the spring and summer, I do not have any issue trying to provide an avenue to flood an area and if it will hold leave it and let people utilize it the nights it is cold enough,” he said.
By the time of publication, the rink may not still be standing due to warmer temperatures.