Volunteer committee considers location for Franklin ice rink

FRANKLIN — While acknowledging how quickly the project is moving forward, a volunteer committee still has details to work out concerning the construction of a community ice rink.

The eight-member committee met at the city library on Friday evening to discuss the next steps in the process ahead of the city council meeting next week. Mayor Desiree McLaughlin said, unlike when she attempted to start a similar conversation last year, there are a lot of people dedicating their time and money.

“At the time, there was nobody jumping to volunteer, but now they're not only volunteering time, but they're donating money,” McLaughlin said. “We've got the momentum.”

Parks and Recreation Director Krystal Alpers suggested the committee place the money in a city account and use the funds whenever they like, so the money carries over year after year.

Mill City Park Vice President Christy Mank expressed her excitement for the project, and how the nonprofit can help.

“Mill City Park is absolutely encouraged by the effort, and will volunteer our group of volunteer board members, as well as the volunteers that always show up for us, that are willing and able, and many are, to help erect the skating rink wherever this committee decides it is going to go,” she said.

She also offered Mill City Park’s location as a potential permanent space for the rink in the future.

Prior to the meeting, the committee was pushing for the lower field at Franklin High School to be used for the rink by placing a liner on the ground. But some members of the 13-person audience wondered if there was a better location. Committee Member Kathy Fuller expressed some concern regarding accessibility.

“Hopefully, with the plow, with the dirt, it will be accessible. But if you have to walk down the hill to go skating, we did it in the old days. I mean, if the kids want to do it, they will. I just worry about anybody handicapped. They will need access to go down,” she said.

Alpers thinks using a liner at the high school field will take too long, including in the most ideal circumstance where city council approves the location.

“We don't get approval from the city until the first week of February, then we have to get it, set it up. Now we're into the second week. Then we have to flood it, then give it probably at least a week,” Alpers said. “Now we're into the second or third week, maybe more, of February, and then March rolls around and it's warm.”

Members of the audience agreed with Alpers' sentiment. While McLaughlin agreed it may take a while to establish the rink, she refutes the claim there isn’t enough time before spring comes.

“I feel like February is the longest month of the year, because it's never ending. It's always freezing. The entire horrible month. It is so cold,” she said. “And then March, you are always hoping, and then you got April showers bring May flowers, but we freeze all of April. And it is warmer, but I don't know what you guys are experiencing, but I feel like my car is frozen straight into March.”

Despite the mayor’s anecdote, the group is considering other locations, including Webster Lake and Odell Park. Alpers was amenable to both suggestions. She proposed starting on Webster Lake this year, as it would only require snow removal.

“It's established, it's there, it's pretty much ready to go, except for probably a little bit of snow removal. And then we work to get the ground running over the course of this year, and do this down at Odell,” she said.

Mank agreed with Alpers. She likes the lower field location and concurs there isn’t enough time to use that space well. She agreed Odell Park could be the perfect permanent solution for the future.

“For me, that just all makes sense, and from the community's perspective of what people enjoyed when they were in younger years, they remember Odell as being that center,” she said. “And I think it's important to just harvest a plan, a really well thought out, well-crafted professional plan, to make that happen for the next full season. If this meeting were in October, I'd feel differently.”

Fuller was not fond of the Webster Lake location. She worried about liability. Alpers said bodies of water, including Webster Lake, are owned by the state, removing liability from volunteers or the city, and suggested skating on the lake is at the skater's own risk. Fuller was resistant to that notion.

“Any attorney is going to say, ‘Your organization opened this up, handed a kid a pair of skates. They went out, you knew what they were going to do. You are responsible,’” she said.

Fuller suggested keeping skates at the rec center for anyone to grab, further preventing liability concerns.

Following the conversation about liability, locating the rink at Odell Park became of more interest to the committee. The ground there is flat, and the cottage can be used for warming or concessions. Fuller liked Odell Park as a permanent solution due to its history hosting an ice rink in the city, where she went to skate since the '50s.

It also piqued her interest, as she hopes the permanent ice rink would be dedicated to Ernest Aube. He served as a caretaker for the parks and recreation department, managing many fields in the community, including Odell Park and its skating rink. He was also a firefighter, and trained to be a police officer.

“We hoped to have a very special place at a permanent skating rink to honor Mr. Ernest,” she said.

The volunteer committee intends to meet once more before the city council meeting, at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, on the second floor of the library.