I hung up my skates long ago and so have no fierce opinion on this, but I'm passing along a note from a friend who does

[Sorry, Bill: I just noticed that the survey ended yesterday; my delay in posting this until today was not deliberate, but I do apologize. CF]

All supporters of athletics and all residents are invited to give their opinions about the Hamill Rink project thru the survey here.  The survey period ends November 27. 

Hamill hands down is the ugliest building in Greenwich (unless you wish to nominate an alternative.)   After all, it wasn’t designed as a building.  In a slap-the-forehead moment, an unplanned roof and walls were added to the outdoor rink three years after it was built in 1971.  See the attachment, where the “roof and partial enclosure” funds were penciled into the 1974 budget at the last minute.  Greenwich still runs its now-indoor rink for 6 months as if it were the outdoor rink.  Perhaps no one in management noticed it has had a roof and walls since 1974.  An all-new Hamill rink is sorely needed.  Ice time is in shortage for Greenwich residents, but the Town can deliver a quality solution by building an all-new beautiful Hamill which runs for 12 months per year and a seasonal skating facility which runs simultaneously for the 5-month skating season, like in the photo below.   If the Town solves the users' ice shortage by building a lasting (not throw-away) second rink, the rink users can be counted on to provide important private donations toward the two rinks.  A public-private partnership for this two-rink solution would be the largest PPP in Town history.  As a result, a quality, lasting two-rink solution will have a much LOWER net cost than the new Hamill alone.

There’s a lot of info at the project webpage.  I’ve written about the project on my FaceBook page.

Thanks,

Sincerely,

Bill

Member, Board of Estimate and Taxation

Chairman, Rink User Committee for Design and Planning

 I was a tad reluctant to post this because I suspect it will generate a bit of negative comment, but keep opinions civil, please.

My own skating experience is all outdoors, either on the Mianus River or on Patrick's Pond down at the end of Gilliam Lane. Patrick’s Pond was so-named, by the way, because our friends and their father Muzz Patrick lived there. Muzz was then the manager of the NY Rangers, a terrible team in the 60s, so bad that we all made a conscious decision not to bring up the team’s performance when we were with his son Paul. On the other hand, Paul was also the grandson of hockey legend Lester Patrick, so there was always that to talk about, instead.

As for Dorothy Hammill, she skated on the pond when her older brother Sandy was forced by his parents to bring her down the street and babysit her. I don’t remember her as being anything special as a skater, but she was probably three years old at the time, and is said to have improved greatly as she grew older.

In any event, I recognize that a lot of Greenwich families are heavily involved in skating at this decrepit rink, and I have no doubt they’d welcome its long-overdue replacement. Who’d pay for it is an issue, but maybe we can establish an entrance tax on new immigrants from NYC, who are used to being soaked and seem to welcome it.