SCARBOROUGH – Going into last week’s workshop on a proposed ice arena in Scarborough, the Town Council had two basic questions that needed answering before it could support community involvement in the project.

Those questions were both answered in the affirmative, laying the groundwork for the likely OK of a memorandum of understanding between the group raising the private funds for the project and the town at the council’s Oct. 15 meeting.

The two questions, according to Town Manager Tom Hall, were: “Is this a worthy endeavor? And is there room on the municipal campus? It sounds like tonight that the general answer is yes.”

Following the Oct. 1 workshop with the Town Council, Chuck Bradish, a member of the Friends of Scarborough Hockey group, said, “(We) couldn’t have asked for a better forum to address the questions and concerns of the Town Council.”

He added, “The (council) was incredibly positive and engaging. Every member had information they were seeking so that they could become better informed on the ice arena project in general, as well as how it pertained to the memorandum of understanding.”

The Friends of Scarborough Hockey group is proposing to raise $5.5 million to build a 37,000-square-foot, 630-seat ice arena on town-owned land, which would include a National Hockey League-size ice rink, 10 locker rooms, a concession stand, a meeting room and a function room that could be rented to the general public.

In its initial discussions with the town, the hockey group said it was most interested in a piece of town land adjacent to the high school with access off Route 114.

However, at last week’s workshop, the hockey group said it would be willing to build the ice rink on any part of the municipal campus that the council designated and would be happy to sign the memorandum of understanding with that caveat in place.

Bradish called that verbal commitment a “major turning point” and also said the 50 emails the council received from residents in support of the ice arena was also a huge help in moving the project forward.

“The Friends of Scarborough Hockey is now working with the Town Council to revise the memorandum of understanding to account for the (results of) the workshop,” Bradish said.

During the meeting last week, Council Chairman Richard Sullivan pointed out that if the ice arena were not located on town-owned land, as a nonprofit entity the hockey group would not be paying any property taxes, which is one argument a local tax advocacy group has used in opposing the ice rink.

In answer to another question raised by Scarborough Maine Advocates for Reasonable Taxes, Jeff Murray, a member of the hockey group, said it would be impossible to ask the Cape Elizabeth and South Portland school departments to commit to long-term contracts for ice time.

However, Murray also said the hockey boosters from those two communities have indicated they would be willing to buy one of the four high school locker rooms, which would represent their contribution to fundraising for the ice arena, as well as their also viewing the rink as their home ice.

As in the initial workshop on the ice arena proposal, a majority of the councilors said they would like to see the facility be available for various community uses, particularly during the off-season when the hockey group was not planning on maintaining the ice.

Last week, Murray said, “we’ve heard clearly the multi-use argument and that’s consistent with our discussion internally.”

During last week’s workshop, Councilor James Benedict also raised concerns about the town being liable for any accidents or injuries, but Mark Maroon, another member of the Friends of Scarborough Hockey and a former councilor, assured him that there were many ways to indemnify the town from any possible claim.

In all, Murray said the ice arena would be a benefit to the town, as well as the users of the facility and argued it “has the same value as the football (stadium) or the gym where basketball games are played.”

Even if the hockey group can’t reach an agreement with the town on using municipal land, Bradish told the Current it would continue to pursue construction of the ice arena somewhere else in town because the need is “definitely there” for ice time.