Saugus’ winter plans on ice

SAUGUS – While the recent warm weather has been a boon to Saugus’ snow and ice budget, one group of residents is hoping for temperatures to plunge. How else can the new outdoor ice rink at Saugus High School be put to good use?”It’s like the first year you buy the snow blower,” said Bob Belyea, Clinic Director for Saugus Youth Hockey. “We put the rinks in and it’s 50 degrees out. We haven’t gotten the weather we need to really optimize it.”Two new ice rinks sit on the Saugus High School practice field, finally frozen after sitting full of water for more than a week. The main 100-foot by 50-foot rink was built with $1,000 of donated funds and volunteers, who put up a knee-high wood frame lined with a water-tight 9 mm polyethylene liner.The other was built using $500 in leftover funds and sits on the baseball field next to the parking lot. That rink was built with just sandbags to keep the water out of the parking lot.Belyea said the idea for an ice rink first came up during the summer, and after the Youth Hockey Board of Directors approved the idea, he went to Youth and Recreation Director Greg Nickolas to see how to put the idea in motion.”We set up some preliminary meetings to talk about locations,” said Belyea. “Then we got some fundraising done through our business community, and then got a bunch of volunteers one day and built the place. Greg made sure all of the town side of things happened, like making sure we had a field and making sure the insurance policy covered anything that happened out here.”Nickolas called the project a “total town collaboration,” from residents donating their time to build the rinks to the Fire Department filling them with water.”Youth Hockey has been the driving force,” said Nickolas. “But it’s a town entity. I talked with the school department and the athletic director, and with the selectmen. I look at it as providing another thing for kids to do, but I also see it as a community-builder. This town could use more community-building events.”The Fire Department filled the rinks last Friday, but Belyea said it took almost week of waiting for them to finally freeze over. Thankfully temperatures plunged at the beginning of the week, albeit for just a couple of days, but it was just enough to make the rinks skateable.”There’s nothing you can do,” said Belyea. “It’s all mother nature. These are natural rinks. We’re just hoping for the best.”On Friday afternoon, several skaters were enjoying some free ice time, including Dillon Hartigan, a recent graduate from Saugus High.”It’s so much more convenient than trekking through the woods to get to the pond,” said Hartigan. “And it’s safe because if you fall through it’s only knee-deep water.”Senior hockey player A.J. Guthro was also breaking in the ice and said he volunteered to help put the rink together.”We came down here at 8 a.m. one Sunday and dug up dirt, outlined the sandbags, built up the boards, nailed them down and filled it up with water,” said Guthro. “It took a long time, but it’s unbelievable. It’s a great time.”Belyea said the rinks would not have been possible without the help of local residents and businesses, including hockey dad and engineer Chris Sparages, high school hockey, field hockey and basketball players, and coaches and Saugus Youth Hockey players and parents.On the business end, Belyea said Lowe’s Home Improvement sent volunteers and low-cost materials, while Wheelabrator, the Saugus Chamber of Commerce, Willams & Sparages Engineers, Agganis Construction and Dick’s Sporting Goods all contributed funds.If temperatures do plunge this winter, Belyea said he’s hoping to hold a winter carnival and is looking to have several hockey events, including U.S.A. Hockey Weekend Across America, which will all be open and free to the public.”There’s no public skating venues anymore,” said Belyea. “The kids in town aren’t skating. When we were growing up Kasabuski was a public skating venue. All weekend it was all public skating. Right now it