I was surprised to read the opinion piece in the Daily Item, July 26 (“Saugus dodges thin ice”). It totally mischaracterizes what occurred with the Saugus Board of Selectmen’s vote to terminate the Kasabuski lease.
It wasn’t, as your piece would lead the reader to conclude, a prudent fiscal move conceived by the town. It was simply a ministerial act by the board to acquiesce to the state’s mandate to take back the rink so it (state Department of Conservation and Recreation and state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance) could undertake a complete renovation of the aging facility — one of the first of the “covered” rinks built by the state in the early 1960s and run by the then Metropolitan District Commission.
Further, the estimate of $3 million plus for improvements is greatly exaggerated by town officials and would not have been a town expense had the operators (my clients) continued to run the rink.
They were fully committed to undertake the improvements called for in the lease had the state not asked that the rink be returned to it. Admittedly, the listed improvements were behind the schedule set forth in the lease document, but that was caused by the almost five-year litigation that the town undertook to cancel the lease.
The trial judge put a hiatus on the timetable while the litigation was ongoing, reasoning that the operators needn’t fund the required improvements if the town was going to be successful in taking it back. It wasn’t, and that delay while the case was alive led to the altered timeline for upgrades.
I am disappointed that what should have been a simple vote by the board to finalize an amicable agreement between all the parties to cede control of the rink to the state turned into an opportunity for the board to raise old grievances which the trial judge and the Appeals Court long ago ruled to be unconvincing and unfounded.
The real story should have been that the state wanted to take back the rink and that the plan is for a major renovation/reconstruction that will benefit skating programs throughout the North Shore area.
Neil Rossman
Swampscott
