Waterhouse Center in downtown Kennebunk won’t open for ice skating this season because of safety concerns posed by the coronavirus pandemic. The select board voted on the matter Oct. 27. Dan King photo
KENNEBUNK – The Waterhouse Center will not open for ice skating this season.
Kennebunk Select Board members voted unanimously to keep the venue closed due to the difficulties associated with keeping skaters and families safe during the coronavirus pandemic.
It wasn’t an easy decision, board members said.
“Nobody likes closing Waterhouse for ice skating, least of all me,” said Blake Baldwin the board chair. “One of my great enjoyments I had was opening the rink four days a week and riding the Zamboni. I will miss that and seeing all the happy users of the rink outside my kitchen window. Nobody is happy about this decision; no one wants to do this.”
Baldwin said the town doesn’t have the personnel to properly staff the rink this year in view of Maine Center for Disease Control guidelines regarding public gatherings, mask wearing, social distancing, contract tracing ability and keeping the washrooms sanitized.
At the Oct. 27 board meeting, Baldwin said parks and recreation staff are not available to monitor the ice-skating venue because they are conducting after-school programs. He said the public works department is down two employees and the police department “is already busy making us the safest town in Maine,” and focusing on other issues.
He went on to say the number of part-time monitors had shrunk to one, an individual with a full-time job, and even if volunteers emerged, the town doesn’t have the ability to support that effort because it would divert town staff from “100 projects they’re working on.”
“Our country is getting sicker by the day and the last thing we (want to) to do is create a set of circumstances where we create the possibility of a super spreader event or cluster,” said Baldwin, noting the rising number positive test rates across the United States.
Another issue is the poor condition of the ice chillers. Board member Shiloh Schulte said the money to replace them should be raised or allocated so the rink will be ready for next season.
Baldwin said an effort to do that had begun early this year, and had pledges of about $165,000 of the $200,000 needed, but then the pandemic hit and those working on the effort felt it was prudent to hold off.
As to the operation of the Waterhouse Center, Town Manager Michael Pardue said the $55,000 annual tab is paid through the endowment left by the late Geraldine Waterhouse.
Resident Christopher Barth said he would support the opening of the ice rink, and asked what could be done to work toward that end during the virtual meeting.
Baldwin said once the temperatures drop, it is much more difficult to make ice because the water doesn’t spread uniformly. He also said the board would take the vote that night to forego the season and that no amount of public comment would change the outcome, because it was in the community’s best interest.
“I think you’re made the right decision,” said resident Brenda Robinson. She asked if it were possible to go back to flooding Rogers Pond, as the town had done previously, as an option.
Wayne Berry, vice chairman, said in the past there had been a problem with inflow from the river, but would check into the possibility. “The ice may not be safe because of the water flowing in,” he said.
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