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Proposed ice arena brings shivers of enthusiasm

Brittany Wildman,17, (left) skates with her sister Melinda, 18, at the Kettering Ice Arena. Brittany is looking forward to having an ice arena closer to home when National Trail Parks and Recreation District plans are realized.

Jan Underwood Brittany Wildman,17, (left) skates with her sister Melinda, 18, at the Kettering Ice Arena. Brittany is looking forward to having an ice arena closer to home when National Trail Parks and Recreation District plans are realized.

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By Samantha Sommer, Staff Writer Updated 2:06 AM Sunday, January 10, 2010

Brittany Wildman loves to ice skate and play hockey, but has to drive to Kettering, Troy or even Columbus to play.

“Hockey was the biggest thing in my life ... but there was no place around here,” said the 17-year-old Greenon High School senior.

So several years ago, Wildman made a presentation to the National Trail Parks and Recreation District encouraging them to build an ice rink and later served on a committee that studied the arena’s design.

Last month the National Trail board selected the Memorial Hall site, 300 W. Main St., for the $5.5 million arena.

Now that a site has been selected for a family ice arena, Wildman is excited.

“I think it will be popular,” she said.

The next step is for National Trail to purchase the property from Healthy City Investments and get to work on construction drawings.

National Trail CEO Tim Smith said the construction time line should be clearer in a few months after those first steps are done.

National Trail hired Canlan Ice Sports Corp., one of the largest ice arena operators in North America, to study the market and develop a business plan.

Based on conservative projections, its 2007 report showed the rink could be profitable within five years.

Smith believes it could be making money sooner and that ultimately it will struggle to find ice time for all the different programs.

“We believe we have great opportunity for success,” he said.

Rink hopes to be family draw

Pascal Chevrette grew up playing hockey in Montreal, and now his two sons play in Columbus and he’s in an adult league in Kettering.

He’s looking forward to National Trail Parks and Recreation District’s ice arena getting under construction and opening.

“As a family, you can get on the ice all together,” said Chevrette, now of Springfield. “You don’t have to be a perfect skater. It’s pretty easy to learn.”

Springfield isn’t Canada, though, where every child grows up learning to skate. So to make National Trail’s ice arena successful, district CEO Tim Smith knows they will have to educate the market.

A Canlan Ice Sports Corp. study in 2007 found the ice arena could be profitable within five years, which Smith called a conservative estimate.

“There’s opportunity to do even more to tighten it down and get there even quicker,” he said.

The study also found that National Trail will have to use grass-roots efforts to generate interest in ice sports.

The arena will add to the district’s activities for families, Smith said, and add something in winter, often a downtime for recreation and other events citywide.

“We’re going into an area that’s untapped ... Part of what we believe we’re about is to bring new and exciting opportunities. It’s just not softball anymore,” Smith said.

Project history

The ice arena is the last major portion of a $17 million capital campaign that also included the Carleton Davidson Stadium, Splash Zone Family Aquatics Center and several smaller projects like the skate park.

A combination of private donations, public dollars and a one-year, half-cent sales tax paid for the campaign.

The district made a commitment to building an ice arena when it raised the money, Smith said, and wants to keep its word.

The district has faced financial woes in recent years as four levy attempts have failed. But the capital dollars can’t be used for daily operations and the ice rink is intended to be self-sufficient.

“We made a commitment to the community to complete these flagship projects,” he said.

The rink was to have been built earlier, but a group of surgeons purchased the rink’s first site, 100 W. Main St., and it is now Ohio Valley Medical Center. That left National Trail to find a new location.

The search narrowed it down to two sites, Memorial Hall and Metallic Casket. The board selected Memorial Hall last month after an architect’s study found that the Metallic Casket building was too small to hold a full sheet of ice.

The next steps include buying the property, selecting a firm for construction drawings and then going over the architect’s concept to bring it in line with the total project budget of $5.5 million. The current proposal is about $800,000 over budget.

The cost estimates are conservative, Smith said, and the current economy makes for attractive bids.

“You always have to work it and trim things or find more efficiencies,” Smith said.

The plan calls for a masonry exterior to complement the other buildings downtown. No decision has been made yet on if the facade of Memorial Hall will be incorporated into the arena’s design on site or if it will be moved elsewhere such as to Veterans Park.

Smith wants to see the project move forward quickly now that a site has been selected, but will have a better idea of a construction time line in a few months.

Mayor Warren Copeland knows that some people might wonder why the district wants to build an ice rink because he had the same reaction himself initially.

He checked out other communities, including his hometown in Rock Island/Moline, Ill., a similar community to Springfield. The ice rink there has become a major community resource, Copeland said, leading him to reconsider his first reaction.

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Also I agree with Melinda on what she has said.

Brittany
12:46 AM, 1/14/2010

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The money was raised for THIS project. This could also become the home to high school teams. Also more people use rinks then IDIOTS and SNOBS. Then the thing was raised that why don't the kids who want to play just flood a parking lot? what kind of comment is that? because do you really think that with our weather would support that? And Springfield is it really worse then South east L.A? I have lived here all my life and I don't need a body guard to walk to my car from the library?

Brittany
12:45 AM, 1/14/2010

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First, if you have such strong feelings why can't you back it with a name? Next the ice rink will create some jobs for people, even if it is a part time job that is better than what some people have now. Third this girl is only seventeen and has been working on this for years, most of you are adults, what have you do to improve Springfield? Most of you have probably just sat there and complained. Finally the ice rink is not meant to be a baby sitter but a family event. It is a family thing.

Melinda
6:59 PM, 1/13/2010

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Hello, a neighborhood can't improve if noone invests in it. Something like an ice-rink will create activity in a rough* part of town and make it more desirable to live & play around there.

*if you think that area is bad you haven't spent much time in REAL cities across the country.

Nat
3:50 AM, 1/12/2010

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I think more people are encouraged by this development than those who are trying to drag it down with their negative expectations. I'm looking forward to it.

Spflder
3:01 PM, 1/11/2010

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