MEREDITH — Scott Crowder, the hockey player turned entrepreneur who founded the New England Pond Hockey Classic, has had unique challenges each year of the event. Now in its fourth go-around, he's wrestling with the problem he had hoped to have: serving the hundreds of hockey fans who look forward to the event next year, without losing the fun, casual atmosphere that has turned the tournament into one of the region's premiere winter events. This years classic starts on Friday morning and continues through Sunday afternoon. Twenty-one rinks have been created at the top of Meredith Bay.
The first year of the Pond Hockey Classic, Crowder's task was to tap into the local hockey culture and attract players who would want to take part in the three-day, outdoor hockey tournament. In his second year, Crowder and his crew had to deal with several inches of slush on top of their Meredith Bay rinks. Last year, the ice didn't form quickly enough on Lake Winnipesaukee, so his company had to develop an alternative location on nearby Lake Waukewan.
He and his crew must have done a good job last year, despite the location hurdle. Most of the teams that participated in last year's tournament wasted very little time in registering for the 2013 event. Crowder said many age divisions were sold out within four hours of registration opening, and the rest filled up shortly thereafter. That's even with Crowder expanding the tournament to 200 teams, up from 175, and 1,400 total players. Many of those players will travel from outside of the region for three days of hockey, filling local hotels, rental properties and restaurants during their stay.
What attracts the hockey players to the event is the opportunity to play the sport in an outdoor setting, with mountains and Meredith village as a backdrop and with the bubbles, cracks and undulations inherent to a natural ice playing surface. What's kept them coming back, hopes Crowder, is the experience that he labors to provide.
"I think it's something good, from an event manager perspective, that people are returning," he said. Now that the event is in its fourth year, he expects that players are drawn back because of team  friendships that have developed and because they've grown enamored of the charms of Meredith and surrounding towns. However, Crowder also thinks the continued success will depend on the qualities of the event itself. Namely, if it will continue to put a smile on every player that shows up. 
He called it, "Keeping it true, so we can host it properly."
That philosophy of management has included capping the registration numbers at levels that both he, Meredith Bay and the surrounding community can reasonably accommodate. It has also meant pursuing partnerships with sponsors that will bring more to the event than a banner flying overhead. For example, on Thursday night, players who have just checked in can attend the welcome party thrown by Labatt Blue; meanwhile Bauer will be leading a skills competition.
"It's a weekend away to have some fun," said Crowder, adding that his goal is to keep it that way.
Fortunately, he seems to have Mother Nature on his side, at least this year. An extended cold snap earlier this month produced ice at least a foot thick across Meredith Bay, thick enough for his crews to use trucks to clear the rinks. Although meteorologists predict an unusually warm day today, the extended forecast calls for perfect hockey weather through the tournament.
Crowder has also been encouraged by the partnership of community members, including the impromptu village of ice fishermen who have inhabited Meredith Bay each winter for decades. Instead of seeing the hockey tournament as encroaching on their territory, they've welcomed the spectacle and refrained from drilling holes in the middle of the rinks – at least until the tournament is over. "The fishermen have been amazing," Crowder reported.
Crowder has one final concern in the days leading up to the event. Due to the warm weather today, the ice surface will be soft and mushy. Should anyone try to skate, or even walk across the rinks, the surface could be ruined. So, he's asking members of the public to stay off the rinks until the tournament begins. There will be areas reserved for public skating during the event, he added.
For more information about the event, visit www.pondhockeyclassic.com.

CAPTION for POWER BROOM in AA:
Christian Riel uses a power broom to clear the surface of one of 21 rinks created on the surface of Meredith Bay, which will host the 4th Annual New England Pond Hockey Classic beginning Friday. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Adam Drapcho)

GILFORD — John "Jack" Lyman has thrown his hat into the race for the Board of Fire Engineers, almost guaranteeing that as of March they'll be at least one "truck guy" overseeing the fire department.
Lyman, who signed up yesterday, is running against Philip "Pat" LaBonte, who has previously served as a Fire Engineer.
As of Monday, incumbent Phil Brouillard said he wasn't sure if he was going to run for a seventh term.
In an brief telephone interview yesterday, Lyman said he doesn't know a lot about firefighting but he knows about management and heavy equipment. He said he was encouraged to run by Board of Fire Engineers Chair Bill Akerley.
"I am going to try and approach this thing objectively and see if I can lend a hand to the process," Lyman said yesterday.
Like LaBonte, Lyman has a long history in the trucking industry and, at least recently, the main issues surrounding the Gilford Fire Department have been those of equipment maintenance and needs.
Fire Chief Steve Carrier said Friday that while Engine 2 was being towed by a strap to Repair Services of New England in the Lake Shore Road area last Friday for a transmission fix, the drive shaft, which had been detached, engaged and spun around, causing some damage to an air line.
The extent of the damage is unknown.

LACONIA — The City Council intends to overhaul the collection of solid waste and recyclable materials at the curbside in the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1, but has yet to choose from among several options City Manager Scott Myers presented to its Public Works Committee last night.
Relying on a memorandum prepared by Ann Saltmarsh of the Department of Public Works (DPW), Myers outlined four proposals, all designed to reduce the cost of collecting, transporting and disposing of solid waste by more than doubling the volume of recycling to at least 30-percent of the waste stream.
Currently the city spends approximately $1,450,000 to dispose of solid waste and collect recyclable material, of which $924,000 is funded by property taxes. Every ton taken out of the waste stream and recycled reduces the cost of collecting, transporting and disposing of solid waste, which is funded by property taxes, by more than $150-per-ton.
Although a "Pay-As-You-Throw" (PAYT) program offered the most significant savings by far, Councilors Brenda Baer (Ward 4) and Armand Bolduc (Ward 5) appeared to favor a species of "mandatory recycling." Only Councilor Matt Lahey (Ward 2) preferred PAYT, remarking that his daughter lives in Concord where it was introduced several years ago and appears to be working well.
"We're not Concord," Baer sniffed at that observation.
One plan called for collecting recyclables weekly throughout the year while collecting trash every other week from September through April and weekly from May to September. Saltmarsh doubted that more frequent collection would significantly increase recycling. At the same time, she warned that if trash were collected only every other week, it would likely accumulate at the curb in amounts exceeding the limits set by city ordinance. The DPW would ultimately be compelled to remove the trash at additional expense.
Myers agreed, citing "major health and aesthetic concerns," and the committee accepted his recommendation to abandon this option.
The second scenario, modeled on the process followed in Reading and several other towns in Massachusetts, would make recycling a requirement for trash collection. Myers explained that the trash truck would only collect solid waste at those addresses where recyclable materials were also placed at the curb to be collected by a second truck. He noted that some sort of enforcement strategy, developed in partnership with the contractor, would be necessary for what he described as "a form of mandatory recycling."
According to Saltmarsh's estimates, the cost savings would not be significant. It currently costs $125,000 a year to collect recyclables every other week and weekly collection would cost another $90,000 for a total of $215,000. If only 20-percent of the waste stream were recycled, the additional collection cost would exceed any savings while with recycling at 30-percent, the savings would approach $50,000.
PAYT was the third option the committee considered. PAYT is intended to increase recycling by requiring residents to place the trash and garbage they do not recycle in a special-marked plastic bag purchased at local retail outlets. The trash, together with recyclable materials, is collected at the curbside once a week. Trash not contained in a marked bag is left at the curb.
PAYT treats trash disposal like a public utility by ensuring that households and businesses pay only for what they generate through the purchase of bags without subsidizing those who choose not to recycle. Moreover, non-profit organizations exempt from property tax would also pay their fair share with PAYT. Some 75 municipalities in New Hampshire have introduced PAYT programs.
Saltmarsh estimated that by recycling 30-percent of the waste stream, PAYT would spare property taxpayers almost $702,000 with proceeds from the sale of bags offsetting most of the cost. Myers explained that the council could effectively subsidize a PAYT program by setting the price of the bags at its discretion. Likewise, he acknowledged that the experience of other municipalities indicated that a PAYT program would likely lead to recycling more than 30-percent of the waste stream, which by increasing the savings to taxpayers would allow more favorable pricing of the bags.
Finally, Casella Waste Systems, which recently acquired Bestway Disposal Services, has suggested introducing an automated system using 64-gallon toters for trash and recyclables provided by the contractor. Representatives of the company will be invited to meet with the Public Works Committee to explain the proposal on February 11.
Councilor Henry Lipman (Ward 3) stressed the urgency of reducing the cost of handling solid waste in the 2013-2014, even it required accelerating the renewal of the current collection contract or putting a new contract out to bid.