Officials frosted over rink

Hope for summer programs melts

When a concave indentation was discovered on the concrete base of Winthrop's newly renovated Larsen Rink, the rumor mill began to churn.

Stories ranged from the rink having a massive sinkhole to predictions that the next hockey season would be suspended.

"We got a lot of calls from people," said Sean Driscoll, director of the Parks and Recreation Department and board member of the rink's Enterprise Fund. "In a small town, you hear rumors."

But he guarantees that there will be ice in the rink by September.

"Parents were panicking, wondering about this year," said Town Councilor James Letterie, who is also president of Winthrop Youth Hockey.

The problem was spotted last spring, when the ice was melted and crews noticed water pooling in one area. Driscoll described it as a circular, 8-inch depression right in the middle of the rink.

"Obviously, we didn't even really realize it until we melted the ice at the end of the year," Driscoll said. "It was tough to take. It was heartbreaking to me because of all the hard work that went on in phase one and the mechanical process. . . . Someone made a mistake along the way."

Since the discovery, town officials have stopped payments for the work done and have been in contact with the contractor, Prism Builders Inc., of Wakefield, to fix the problem, Driscoll said. Prism Builders has hired an independent engineer to make an assessment. The process is tied up as insurance companies review the findings and the work done by subcontractors, Driscoll said.

Prism Builders did not return calls seeking comment.

It's doubtful that any work will be done to fix the indentation before the start of the new hockey season in September, Driscoll said.

"If you walked in the rink with the ice on it, you wouldn't even have noticed it," he said. "It'll take longer to freeze with that bump, but we can still have great ice."

All it would take, he said, is to make the ice sheet a little thicker to compensate for the dent. Although hockey season won't be affected, the same cannot be said for Driscoll's plans for the rink during the off-season.

Built in the 1970s, the rink had a sand-based floor up until last fall's upgrade to concrete. Before the recent $1.1 million worth of upgrades to bleachers and the rink's foundation, Larsen hadn't seen any significant renovations. At some point, the sand floor became uneven, and certain spots on the ice were bumpy, Driscoll said.

The sand floor also limited the rink's use to the cold months. When the upgrade was finally made to a concrete floor, Driscoll had big plans to turn the rink into an off-season youth center, starting this summer. But the indentation put those plans on hold.

"It's the first thing we've done in 35 years in the rink," Letterie said. "I feel badly for Sean Driscoll because he had programs planned. . . . It's just an unfortunate glitch."

Holding off on summer programs means that the Parks and Recreation Department has taken a financial loss, said Driscoll, adding that the department is self-funded through activities and program fees. Initially, Driscoll said he anticipated that repair work would be done during the summer and that's why he canceled the debut of the summer rink program.

"At the end of the rink season in May, we wanted to do activities for the middle school kids on top of the floor, like a dance, and we were going to move activities inside on rainy days, like basketball or street hockey," he said. "We wanted to give them a place to go at night. It was going to be a community center. This thing has set us back this year."

And possibly next summer as well. There is only a slim chance that repair work will be done this summer, in order to keep the promise of September ice, Letterie said. "Down the road, I think it will be fixed next year and we'll move on."

Driscoll said the floor replacement seemed to go well, despite the fact that a portion of the ground was frozen after all the sand was removed. He said after it was thawed out, "everything went smooth." However, the frozen ground may be to blame, said James Hartnett, an ice arena consultant who owns EIS Rinks of Syracuse, N.Y.

"Once you have permafrost, it's an issue that, whatever you put back in there, you have to make sure the soil is tight and compacted," said Hartnett, who was involved in the equipment-replacement phase in Winthrop while working for a contractor. He was not involved during the floor replacement phase. "When you deal with permafrost, if you don't deal with it correctly, and there's more than one way to deal with it, it's going to be a problem always."

Driscoll said he is confident the matter will be fixed, but concedes that it is still frustrating.

"We spent a lot of time and energy on the ground," Driscoll said. "There's a lot to the process and we've done every check and balance, checking the strength of the cement. . . . It should not have happened at all."

Katheleen Conti can be reached at kconti@globe.com.