Saugus selectmen angered over Kasabuski fees

SAUGUS – The concern over the possibility that the cost of ice time at Kasabuski Arena might increase next year has a couple of selectmen seeing red.Selectman Michael Kelleher said it was his impression that Saugus Youth Hockey and Saugus High School would always have preferred rates when it came to ice time at Kasabuski, despite the new management.The town leased the rink last fall to a third party, relinquishing the operation in an attempt to get out from under an approximate $850,000 debt. Part of the deal was that the kids would receive a break on ice time. Kelleher said during the board’s meeting Tuesday that he has learned the deal on the table for next year isn’t much of one.Ice time for the local hockey organizations is $185 an hour according to Kelleher but the increase, he said, has been quoted at $240 per hour.Selectman Stephen Horlick reminded Town Manager Andrew Bisignani that the main reason the board signed off on the lease agreement was because the kids were promised preferred rates. Horlick said the proposed increase was exactly why he wanted the new rink management to put the promise of preferred rates in writing, which didn’t happen.”We signed that lease and we did give them some good terms,” he said. “We worked with them.”Bisignani jumped in to remind the board that it can fret all it wants regarding rink rates, but the fees are no longer the town’s call.”We have no say, DCR (Department of Conservation and Recreation) will meet with the rink operators and go over the numbers,” he said. “We are the landlords but we have nothing to do with the operation of the rink.”Bisignani also took issue with what he felt was an insinuation that he doesn’t care what happens with the rates.”No one throughout this whole process has been a bigger proponent of that rink than I was,” he said. “I spent countless days and hours trying to put this (deal) together.”Bisignani said he could have simply closed the Kasabuski’s doors and handed the keys over to DCR, which owns the building, but he didn’t. As landlord, he said the town has some say in what goes on with the rink but by and large things like determining ice fees is between the rink management and DCR.”I don’t care about DCR or what they have to say,” Kelleher said. “I don’t care what anyone else thinks. We had a good faith understanding that this rink was critical to the local organizations.”Kelleher praised Bisignani for the work he did to keep the rink open and relieving the town of a fiscal burden but he added, “I’ll say it loud and clear over my dead body will I let this (fiscal burden) transfer to the tax payers.”Bisignani suggested they wait until DCR and the rink managers meet with area organizations and settle on the rates until they take any further action.