A $4.5 million state investment in Kasabuski Memorial Ice Rink improvements should serve as a lesson in thinking small for the Town of Saugus.
The town has had a 60-year, love-hate relationship with Kasabuski that formally ended in July 2020 when Town Manager Scott Crabtree announced that the town had terminated a lease agreement with the state “…allowing the state to regain operation.”
Built in 1960 and named for town residents John and Walter Kasabuski, who were mortally wounded on the same day while fighting in Italy in World War II, the rink went from being a local attraction to an expensive annoyance in 1983 when its refrigeration system failed.
Repairs kept the rink in operation and the town signed a 20-year lease with the state in 2008 placing Kasabuski under local control. That decision proved to be a mistake, with Crabtree noting that town administrators who predated his service in Town Hall quickly found they could not keep up with the financial investment required to run the rink.
A subleasing deal led to more problems, including a lengthy legal battle. By the end of the last decade, the best thing town officials could say about Kasabuski was that town involvement in the rink “has been a long road.”
With the state back in charge of Kasabuski and major renovation spending underway, the rink is headed into a newer, brighter chapter as a large venue for a hockey-loving town. The rink’s renewal should also serve as a warning to town officials to think small when it comes to local operations.
Operating Kasabuski was always a stretch for the town. Saugus enjoys proximity to Breakheart Reservation and the Iron Works. Those local attractions are operated, respectively, by the state and the federal government, and it’s hard to imagine town officials contemplating local takeover of either facility. So why did operating a rink ever seem like a feasible idea?
Named for local men who gave their all, Kasabuski can remain a point of pride for Saugus. But we’re hoping the rink’s days as a financial and legal morass are in the past.
