BATH

For Bath, at least, the wait is over.

The outdoor skating rink at Goddard Pond, on the corner of High and Marshall streets, opened Thursday. Goddard Pond skating is free to the public and has outdoor lighting until 9 p.m. It is open 3 to 9 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 9 p.m. on weekends, school vacation days and holidays.

The warming hut and refreshment stand weren’t open as of Thursday, but tentatively will open this weekend.

Hannah Redman, 6, who lives in Bath, was the first skater to hit the ice this year, with her father, Neil Redman.

“She’s been skating since she was 2,” said Redman of Hannah, who was bustling around the rink in a purple ensemble Thursday afternoon as snow began to fall.

“Last year, I was pushing her in a chair, but this year she got up on her own and she’s just cruising around,” he said.

Outdoor skating rinks are a boon to parents looking for activities for kids at home on school break that get them away from the TV for awhile and are not a burden on the wallet.

Making a rink may seem an easy task, but Goddard Pond is among the last of a dying breed of municipal rinks. Once a core element of winter parks and recreation departments activities, some towns now are only able to establish rinks as a last priority.

Bath recently had to shut down its second outdoor rink, Dummer Street Pond, at Dummer and Beacon streets.

Don Allisot, the maintenance super- visor at the Bath Parks and Recreation Department, said the ice at Goddard Pond isn’t in perfect condition yet — the corners are thin — but he’s hopeful it will improve over the season.

That’s if snow later this week doesn’t shut them down again.

Allisot has been overseeing the making of Goddard Pond rink for more than 35 years, and knows that outdoor rinks are anything but a sure thing.

“Mother Nature is in control here, especially on the coast,” Allisot said. “She giveth and she taketh away.”

Goddard Pond’s outdoor rink is located at the natural site of a pond which is drained and used as a field in the summer. In the winter, the dam that was built for this purpose is shut off, allowing the field to flood again.

“There isn’t a steady overflow, but if we have some rainy days it makes it easier,” Allisot said, noting that the ice storm had washed away most of the snow accumulation and allowed a fresh surface to form.

Allisot has seen a lot of changes in his 35 years maintaining the rink.

What once was a teen hangout “way back when” is now used mostly for family recreation, Allisot said, particularly for families with young children.

“We see a lot of beginners down here,” he said.

The rink that is now maintained with department equipment, was handmade when Allisot was a new hire.

“I used to hire a bunch of schoolkids to help, but the kids grew up and moved away. The use (of the rink) is far less than it used to be,” Allisot said.

The Topsham Parks and Recreation Department endeavors to establish two outdoor rinks off Foreside Road, but have been thwarted this year by the weather.

Once a contracted position in Topsham, for the last eight years the role of rink maker has fallen to maintenance personnel, time and weather permitting. Early snow and fluctuating temperatures, as this year, make the job harder.

The skating rink on the Mall in downtown Brunswick is not yet open, though, weather permitting, will be operational some time after Jan. 1.

For an area rife with hockey fanatics, there is a dearth of nearby indoor ice skating facilities. With Bowdoin College’s Sidney J. Watson arena mostly closed to the public and the outdoor rink at Lishness Park in Brunswick being weatherdependent, the nearest indoor arenas are in Falmouth and Lewiston.

At The Family Ice Center in Falmouth, public skating is $5 per person and children under 5 skate for free. The January schedule is available at http://www.familyice.org/public-skating.

The Colisee in Lewiston offers public skating for $5 per person and $3 for children younger than 12. Schedules vary, but updates are available on the Colisee’s website at http://www.thecolisee.com/ schedule/schedule-dec.html.

rgargiulo@timesrecord.com