Well good for our citizens for defying the worrywarts in Town Hall, but really? Skating banned on the Mianus?

Danger, Will Robinson!

Townies are skating, fishing on the Mianus, despite what the town has decreed. Sheesh, when did this idiocy start? Yes, the Mianus has flowing water, and I'm sure it could be dangerous, but it's always been a premier skating location in town. My own memories stretch back at least to 1956, when I was three, pushing a kitchen stool ahead of me as I travelled the black ice up to Dumpling Pond Bridge (my father didn't believe in double-bladed training skates; he just grabbed a couple of kitchen stools to help us learn to balance), and mingling with hundreds of fellow skaters and even ice fishermen along the way. I think I remember a few incidents of people falling through the ice over the ensuing years, but those happened during the sketchy part of the season, and even then, so what? That shouldn't be the town's problem or responsibility, and certainly shouldn't be cause for banning skating during the winter.

Some stern town official is quoted in the Greenwich Time article as noting that the Mianus is a river, with flowing water, which can lead to weak ice. True enough, but the water in the canals of Amsterdam not only flows, it's brackish, yet people have skated those canals for hundreds of years.

I say, put up a sign, "skate at your own risk", and back off.