MARBLEHEAD — The town’s Recreation and Parks Department is considering building an outdoor ice rink using a large donation meant for expanding winter recreation opportunities in Marblehead.
The department launched a resident survey on Jan. 21 seeking input on the proposal.
“The town has received a generous gift to support recreational activities in town with a focus and preference to support winter sports such as public skating and ice hockey,” the survey said.
The $2.2 million donation will be used to renovate Reynolds Playground on Hoods Lane, which includes existing playing fields and an outdoor rink. However, as a proposal released by the department in December states, neither the fields or the rink are in usable condition and have not been maintained for the past four decades.
“There are no funds for repairs,” the proposal said. “The rink will not hold water. We can no longer flood it. The integrity of the surface is gone. The rink needs to be replaced. It will come to a point in the near future when it will probably have to be taken down as it continues to degrade.”
The department learned in 2016 that the estate of Larz Anderson, a Marblehead resident, would donate money to the town to be used with an emphasis on winter sports, although there is some flexibility to use it for other recreational activities.
If the rink is built, the space would not accommodate a regulation-sized, 200-foot hockey rink. Instead, it would most likely be approximately 180 feet, the same size of the existing rink, and would operate from around mid-November to mid-March.
Ice time would be made available to the Marblehead Youth Hockey Association, and the rink would also be open to the public for free skating. In the off-season, the rink would be used for street hockey and other sports.
Chris Wells, coach for the Marblehead High School boys hockey team, said he was strongly in support of the proposal for a new rink, as the town currently has no space for practicing. The high school team currently holds practices early in the morning at Salem State University and is “at the mercy” of other teams when it comes to ice time, he said.
“Marblehead prides itself on the hockey program,” Wells said. “I always thought it was surprising they didn’t have a rink already.”
In addition to the new rink, the donated funds would be used to build new playing fields and a new baseball diamond, install new lighting and upgrade the dog park at Reynolds Playground. Another $200,000 would be placed in an escrow account for future repairs and maintenance.
Results from the survey have not yet been released. The town also plans to hold a virtual public meeting to gather resident input.
The Marblehead Recreation and Parks Department and Marblehead Youth Hockey Association did not return multiple requests for comment for this story.
