SCARBOROUGH – After receiving an enthusiastic thumbs up from the Scarborough Board of Education last week, a group planning to build an indoor ice arena in town is also hoping to get official approval to move forward from the Town Council.

Despite some opposition to the proposal from a taxpayers’ advocacy group, the council, which was scheduled to meet on Wednesday, after the Current’s deadline, is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Friends of Scarborough Hockey, Inc. that would allow the proposed ice arena to be built on town-owned land adjacent to the high school.

The friends group, which consists of Chuck Bradish, Lee Allen, Jeff Murray, Mark Maroon, Bob Jacques and Chelsie Woods, hopes to get the 37,000-square-foot, 630-seat, $5.5 million ice rink open by October 2015.

The Friends of Scarborough Hockey have pledged to raise all the money needed to build and operate the ice arena privately, but even so, Scarborough Maine Advocates for Reasonable Taxes is opposing the concept.

Prior to the Aug. 20 council meeting, the group issued a press release stating it’s “deeply concerned by some of the proposed terms,” as well as the speed with which the proposed project is moving ahead.

The tax group said in theory it is not opposed to the ice arena, but it is opposed to using town-owned land for the project. As part of the project, the Friends of Scarborough Hockey has said it would like to lease the town land at a low cost for the long term.

In its press release the tax group said, “We do not believe that the town should subsidize any unrelated entity by providing goods or services – including land leases – at less than full market value.”

The release added, “Town-owned land is an asset. It has a market value. Its lease has a market value. When the town leases an asset at less than a market rate, it is giving up revenue – revenue which would reduce the tax burden on Scarborough residents.”

“We are distressed that this proposal seems to be on a fast-track through the town approval process,” said Bob Rovner, a founding member of Scarborough Maine Advocates for Reasonable Taxes. “It’s troubling that the Town Council would even consider entering into a proposal that leases land to a private enterprise at a bargain rate based on so little information.”

And Annalee Rosenblatt, a member of the tax group’s steering committee, said, “This proposal well may be a great opportunity. But the public knows so little about the proposal that it’s impossible to assess its merits. It would be a shame for the council to rush this agreement through in one late-summer meeting with so little background information and so little public input.”

But Council Chairman Richard Sullivan told the Current he would support signing the memorandum of understanding with the Friends of Scarborough Hockey, which he described as only a first step that would “start the process.”

Sullivan also said that Town Manager Tom Hall has “thoroughly gone over” the business plan for the proposed ice arena to “ensure it can sustain operations.”

Personally, Sullivan is supportive of the ice rink project.

“It is absolutely needed (because) ice time is very scarce,” he said.

He also called the arena a “win-win for taxpayers and the kids.”

Last week, Hall called the memorandum of understanding the council is expected to sign a non-binding document that would “outline all the expectations, roles and responsibilities” associated with both fundraising for and construction of the new ice rink.

At its meeting on Aug. 14, the Board of Education got an outline of the proposed ice arena from Bradish and Murray. Board members also got a chance to ask questions regarding the project.

According to Murray, the idea is for the arena to be governed by a board of directors that would consist of representatives from the Scarborough, South Portland and Cape Elizabeth school districts, as well as three at-large members.

He also said the arena would operate on a full schedule from October to April each year, but during spring and summer the facility would essentially be closed down.

Although the ice arena would be considered the home rink for the middle and high school teams from Scarborough, Bradish said in order to ensure the arena breaks even the local teams would still be charged for ice time.

Bradish told the board that the goal of the Friends of Scarborough Hockey is to be pro-active in terms of ensuring that the school and youth hockey teams from the region have adequate access to ice time.

However, he also said the arena would not be solely dedicated to hockey and would be open for figure skating, as well as public uses, such as open skates or skate parties.

The plan is for the ice arena to be built on the approximately 1-acre faculty parking lot at Scarborough High School. The arena would have access off Route 114.

Murray said the friends group looked at several locations around Scarborough, but feels the town-owned parcel in Oak Hill represents the best site.

Board of Education member Jacquelyn Perry thanked the friends group for taking on the ice arena project and joked that once that facility is up and running, it would be great if they could turn their attention to a community pool.

And Vice Chairwoman Kelly Murphy said, “This is very exciting for all of us. I hope that we’ll shortly hear that all systems are a go.”

An architect’s rendering of a 37,000-square-foot indoor ice arena proposed on town land adjacent to the high school.