BIDDEFORD — On Monday afternoon, 6-year-old Jake Marcotte from Old Orchard Beach and his father, Keith, were in the warming hut at the West-Brook Skating Rink on Pool Street, lacing up their skates and getting ready to take to the ice at the outdoor arena.
Also in the hut were Jacinta Wright from Saco, who attends college at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, and her friend Edward Budway from Scarborough, who attends the University of Southern Maine in Portland, getting ready to go on the skating date they had been planning for the last two weeks.
Meanwhile, Brett Levasseur, Codie Dube and Robbie Downing, all recent graduates of Thornton Academy in Saco, had met at the rink and were taking a respite from the cold in the hut before they took to the ice again to continue their friendly game of ice hockey.
These were just a few of the several hundred people who have glided upon the ice at the outdoor arena since it opened for the 2012-13 winter season on Thursday. Since 1907, when West-Brook Skating Rink first opened, thousands of people, young and old, have come with their friends, family and classmates to have fun at the rink. All had their own reasons for flocking to the ice this year.
Young Jake Marcotte, who plays ice hockey for the Sharks, a team that’s part of the Biddeford Youth Hockey Association, said he likes coming to the rink because “it’s fun.”
“It’s good practice for him,” said Jake’s father, Keith, and added, “it’s good, old-fashioned fun.”
Budway said he wanted to go skating with Wright, because “I used to play hockey. I wanted to show off a little.” For her part, Wright said she wanted to skate at West-Brook, one of her favorite skating spots, because, “it’s a Maine winter thing today.”
Dube, a student at Southern Maine Community College in Portland, Levasseur, who attends the University of New England in Biddeford, and Downing, who plays for the Portland Pirates, said they like playing hockey on the open ice at the Biddeford rink for a variety of reasons.
“It’s a lot of space,” said Dube.
“I get to hang out with the boys,” said Levasseur.
Outdoor rinks are “where (ice hockey) originated,” said Downing, and pond skating within uneven ice is better practice than skating on an indoor rink under ideal conditions. Also, he said, at West-Brook, “I can do what I want to do,” rather than being on a regimented schedule as he is when practicing with his team.
David Gagnon, president of the West-Brook Skating Rink Association, said he hopes the rink will remain open for another 100 years.
But while it’s clear that many enjoy skating at West-Brook, Gagnon said each year it gets harder to do the work, conducted by volunteers, to get the rink ready for the season. Without needed improvements, the rink may not be able to survive for the long run, he said.
To conduct the improvements, the city, which owns the rink, must apply for a permit as required under the state’s Natural Resource Protection Act.
City Engineer Tom Milligan said he is working on a permit application that would allow for stabilizing the embankment on the side of the rink, which has deteriorated over the years, as well as repairing a concrete dam and diverting a stream.
While members of the skating association are hoping work at the rink can begin this summer, conducting the work for the permit “is not at all a simple project,” said Milligan.
He expects to complete a draft of the permit application by the end of the month, said Milligan, and have it ready for submission in February. The planned improvements would need to be approved by the planning board, he said, and the Department of Environmental Protection and several other agencies would also have to sign off on the permit to go forward.
Gagnon said he hopes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would take on the project so the labor would be free, but the skating association would still have to come up with materials, the cost of which has been estimated between $100,000 and $200,000.
Gagnon said he’s hoping local businesses will come forward to contribute.
West-Brook Skating Rink “is a legacy,” said Gagnon, “people have enjoyed this for a long time. I hope they can enjoy it for a long time to come.”
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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