Ice Center reopens after leaking cooling tower replaced

July 22, 2022  |  By Abbie Kopelowitz | Community News Service

The cooling tower sits outside the rear of the Ice Center. Photo by Gordon Miller

The Ice Center has reopened after taking three months to repair and replace aging equipment — including a cooling tower that had been leaking for years in violation of local utility regulations.

The rink resumed operations July 7 after its April 1 closure. That shutdown followed a notice of violation last year from the Edward Farrar Utility District which oversees operations of the water and wastewater departments. The rink was put on notice regarding the leaking tower and its failure to fix the leak.

Ice Center board president Jon Siegel said that the repairs will cost about two-thirds of the $100,000 the nonprofit ice rink was granted from the town’s American Rescue Plan Act funds. Voters in March approved the allocation. The town is receiving just over $1.5 million in pandemic economic relief.

“The original intention of the $100,000 was to replenish the cash reserve,” Siegel said. “We may need a portion of it to cover expenses in the near term, but if insurance pays us back, we'll replenish it.”

The utility district’s Board of Commissioners voted 3–2 at their July 13 meeting on the fine for the rink: For every day between Sept. 26, 2021, and March 31, 2022 that the average temperature in Waterbury measured more than 40 degrees, the center will have to pay $25. 

Ice Center management got the violation notice in August 2021, but asked local officials to delay closing the center for repairs until the end of the season this spring. The rink shut down April 1.

Between then and the July 7 reopening, crews completed several key maintenance projects. The most involved was the replacement of the water tower outside the building. The structure provides the cool temperatures needed to maintain and create ice surfaces while a condenser disposes heat outdoors. 

For years the tower had been leaking water, according to Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk. But the rink’s management did not take steps to prevent the excess water waste and to fix the problem, he said.

After receiving the violation notice, Shepeluk said members of the Ice Center’s board attended utility district meetings and ordered a new condenser for the cooling tower. That process also took longer than anticipated due to pandemic supply issues, they said. 

When the rink closed this spring, workers shut down the compressor, took the ice out and began dismantling old machinery for replacement. Shepeluk said the rink saw some mechanical issues with the refrigeration system upon replacing the cooling tower, which further delayed the reopening. 

At the utility district's July 13 meeting, the five-person commission considered an alternative to the fine, suggesting the rink make a donation of free public ice time. The center still estimated that it would cost between $4,840 to $5,940 in lost revenue. 

With the Ice Center’s doors open again, the rink once again is offering public skating and hockey leagues and others are booking ice time. 

Upon resuming operations, the center also announced the appointment of a new manager: Reggie Brown, who has been with the rink for about 13 years but is new to the role of operations manager. 

“Supervision is not anything new to me,” Brown said. “Just a different capacity and a different role.”

Brown replaces Tim Griffith who was rink manager for the past two years. Griffith has taken the manager position at the Civic Center in Montpelier and said he plans to restart his personal training business which was largely sidelined during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Community News Service is a collaboration with the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.