Ice Center: New manager, new ice. New season?
August 7, 2020 | By Sidney Bewlay | Community News Service
Tim Griffith, the new manager at The Ice Center, stands on the concrete rink floor that awaits new ice. The floor has gotten some repairs and other updates are in progress at the facility in preparation for a target re-opening in September. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
It’s been a long, quiet ice-free four months at The Ice Center in Waterbury but work is underway now with a Sept. 8 opening target and skaters will notice some updates at the rink.
New ice will be poured. There’s a new logo coming to the center’s website and social media. And there’s a new face in the front office.
“I want to go back to youthful excitement here. I grew up playing hockey in the area and want this to become a spot that highlights the community,” said the center’s new manager, Tim Griffith.
The 2005 Harwood Union graduate and former hockey player said he’s “very excited to give the Ice Center a facelift” and modernize the nonprofit operation.
Griffith graduated summa cum laude from the University of New England in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in applied exercise science. He lives and works locally as a personal strength and conditioning trainer and said his new position gives him a chance to combine his love for hockey with his profession and be involved in the community.
So far though, since Griffith got on board in June, there has been little community activity at the rink.
The Ice Center closed in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the state’s order for non-essential businesses to shut down operations involving the public.
Since then, the lack of summer business has given the board of directors time to plan repairs, renovations, and updates to the rink. And when the former manager resigned, the board turned to Griffith who said the timing was right. He’s spent the past six years working as a fitness coach but this spring left him with few options to work with clients as gyms closed due to COVID-19.
As the new rink manager, Griffith said he’s pushing for a more modern feel to the Ice Center and just about every task he’s taken on so far supports that vision.
The Ice Center’s new logo. Courtesy photo.
One high-profile update in the works is a redesign of the Ice Center website to be more modern-looking and easier to navigate. It will feature a bold new logo with an image of the familiar red building, trees, and a mountain profile of Camel’s Hump. Griffith has already put the logo on the Ice Center’s Facebook page.
Also new to the Ice Center when it reopens will be the use of credit cards. Since the Ice Center opened in 2003, it has accepted only cash or checks for payments. Griffith has pushed to get credit cards as an approved form of payment pointing out that it’s a logical step especially now that he can “pay for things through my watch or phone.” Griffith said he believes the community will embrace the move and it could make the Ice Center more accessible to the public.
When the rink closed in March, the ice was removed for the first time since 2011. The move initially was intended to save money to not maintain ice when no one was using it. But it quickly became apparent that this was an opportunity for maintenance. The concrete floor usually under the ice had cracks in need of repair and the temperature regulators under the floor needed long-delayed repairs, Griffith said.
Much of that work has been done and the concrete awaits fresh ice by the end of the month.
Looking ahead, the center’s board has set Sept. 8 as the target to reopen. They hope the center can welcome skaters back such as the Vermont Flames and the Green Mountain Glades youth programs, recreational adult leagues, popular stick and puck and public skating times and, of course, the local high school hockey teams.
The Ice Center is home ice to Harwood Union High School’s boys and girls teams. The high school practices and matches make the rink a busy place from late fall through the winter season.
Whether and how high school hockey has a season this coming school year remains to be decided. The Vermont Principals’ Association, which regulates high school athletics, so far has not announced how it will proceed with the fall high school sports season. The schedule has already been delayed to not begin before school reopens -- right now that’s expected Sept. 8 due to the pandemic and school districts needing planning time. It’s not clear when the VPA will address winter sports, which includes hockey. The COVID-19 shutdowns cut short the winter season last school year as the season came to a halt before all of the playoff games had wrapped up.
But that’s not stopping The Ice Center from moving ahead with upgrades that focus on the role Harwood Union hockey plays at the facility. Locker rooms have gotten a facelift this summer with bright, fresh paint in the school’s black, white and gold colors. New wooden cubbies have been made for players and were being installed recently. Griffith said he’d like them to have nameplates so each player has their own spot.
With the ice out, there’s an opportunity to redo the Harwood logo at center ice. Griffith said there’s a fresh image in the works that will include the school’s highlander mascot and not just the school initials that were there previously.
Once the rink clears the reopening hurdle, Griffith has other ideas for improvements at the Ice Center such as using current storage space above the snack bar for an off-ice training area.That concept is in the early stages needing some design and planning work and the center would need funding. So far, there’s no cost estimate yet to know how soon those plans might come together.
The funding angle has Griffith thinking of ways to help grow revenue for the center such as increasing the advertisements from local businesses at the rink. Adding sponsors in a visible way could help generate income for the rink and promote businesses within the local community, he said.
In the short term, Griffith said he’s watching what happens with the Harwood Union School District to see if there may be an opportunity to do some youth programming to match up with days students are doing remote learning given the gradual return to in-person instruction that’s expected this school year.
But Griffith said he wants to take reopening one step at a time. Public health regulations around COVID-19 will add new steps to the daily routine, especially much more cleaning.
Griffith said he has been watching how other rinks that have already reopened and have been operating, and he’s already seeking to hire staff to help with the new tasks. New employees will be needed mainly to clean what are referred to as “contact surfaces” between skating times. This means wiping down all surfaces that players and guests may touch, he said, a process that could take 30 to 45minutes each time. Ultimately, this new protocol could impact rink scheduling throughout the day, he said.
It’s still unclear though how hockey games and programs will work. As with so many other things, the precautions to prevent the spread of the virus don’t mesh well with the typical hockey game scenario. For example, Griffith said the current guidelines allow for no more than 25 people on the ice at a time. Hockey games require 20 players on each team, not including coaches, referees, and athletic trainers or even fans, he pointed out.
Griffith said he’s willing to take whatever steps are necessary such as keeping locker rooms closed to reduce areas where players would be in close contact.
For now The Ice Center waits for more information with the hope that high school hockey and the other programs for all ages will resume in the near future. Griffith noted that Harwood Union High School will still have priority over the rink if they have a season, because The Ice Center is their home rink. Should high school programs not go forward however, Griffith said it’s unclear what that might mean for The Ice Center through the winter.
Community News Service is a collaboration with the University of Vermont’s Reporting and Documentary Storytelling program.