Residents want to have an ice day at neglected Bayville rink

Behind Bayville Village Hall there is an oasis, or at least many in the community see it that way. At the end of a roughly 100-foot trail through the woods, there is a fenced-in area surrounding an ice rink that was once a popular spot among residents. But because it has not been maintained in years, the rink is littered with frozen leaves and branches, and the trail has become a snarl of logs from fallen trees.

Paul Mager discovered the rink’s condition when he and his wife, Laura, attempted to take their young daughter, Sophia, ice-skating a couple of weeks ago. After managing to negotiate the trail, which Mager said was unmaintained, he was  disheartened to see just how dire the conditions were at the rink. The area has been vandalized and the ice is a mess too, he said, so much so that his family’s winter outing had to be aborted. 

Mager decided he had to do something. He contacted Mayor Bob De Natale to ask if he and a group of volunteers could clean up the rink. Upon receiving approval, the revitalization of the trail and rink was set for Feb. 13. Many residents wanted to help, Mager said, sharing their memories of years past when they enjoyed gathering to skate, sit around a firepit and have a mug of hot chocolate. But on Tuesday, De Natale called Mager to say that he could not move forward with the cleanup. It was a question of liability, the mayor said, prompting Mager to suggest that volunteers could sign waivers. But De Natale was not swayed. 

“They wanted to use a power washer, which involves electricity,” De Natale said. “And they  cannot remove trees from the trail. The rink has not been maintained, but if residents want it, we will put it in the budget.”

New fencing is needed, De Natale added, and the branches from recent wind storms need to be removed, which the village would do. He suggested that the volunteers clean the area up in November or December, because now there will only be relatively few days left where temperatures will fall below freezing and the ice will be solid.

“A lot of people are saying they don’t care if there is only one day left this winter. They want to skate,” said John Taylor, a former Bayville trustee. “It should never have gotten this bad.”

The cancellation of the cleanup led to an outcry on Facebook. Many residents, who admitted that they didn’t know there was an ice rink, now want it operational. Others said they could not understand why the village was turning down an offer by volunteers to do the work that the Department of Public Works should have done. There was a suggestion by Mager that part of the reason why the cleanup had been denied was due to resistance by the DPW to a volunteer effort.

“DPW should not be dictating what can and cannot be done,” Taylor said. “That’s up to the board. If liability was a real issue, the Beautification Committee could not do any work on village property and the Boy Scouts could not have rehabilitated the docks at West Harbor. This is disappointing.”

Opinions on the rink multiplied. The issue became more than an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors during the winter. People described it as a way to deal with Covid fatigue. The rink would encourage children and the community to come together, many reasoned, during a time when people are isolated.

Lisa Maloney, a member of the Bayville Recreation Committee, said she would be happy to assist in a cleanup and would bring it up at the next meeting. “I think Mr. Mager’s efforts to help restore our community rink is a wonderful thing,” she said, “and an excellent opportunity for the community to have a winter activity everyone can enjoy.”

De Natale has always said he wants what is best for the village. Although he felt compelled to cancel the cleanup, he said he wanted to help.

“The village has just replaced the fire hydrant at the rink, and if we know that there will be a freeze, we could flood the [rink] to cover over the leaves,” he said. “The area isn’t in bad shape, but the fence has ragged edges, which we can’t replace now.”

He said he asked Mager to meet on Saturday to go to the rink. De Natale plans to discuss what can be done.

Victoria Siegel, who served two terms as mayor, said the village had always taken care of the facility’s upkeep. “We would hire young people who would get the rink in shape and maintain it,” she said. “The rink was doing well when I left office.”

The ice forms in layers, Siegel explained, and is damaged after people play hockey or skate on it. The young people that were hired would push off the shaved ice and use shovels to fill in the crevices that formed so it was safe to use the rink.

“The rink was part of the village budget when I was mayor, and village taxes supported it, like it does our beaches,” she said. “The rink is a fabulous recreational facility, and should be opened. People are looking for things to do locally, but if the insurance carrier is talking about liability, I can understand why the village might be reticent.”

Paul Rupp, who was mayor in 2014, said that during his administration, the rink was open two months of the year, from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. No village funds were used to maintain it, he said. Volunteers would clear debris from the ice, and at night some would take turns watering, while others used a skimmer to smooth out the bumps.

“We had a good time there,” Rupp said. “Parents would watch their kids skate while drinking a cup of coffee. My wife grew up here and said that the place was mobbed 24/7 back then. After I left office it became a junkyard. The cement walkway caved in and the handrails are busted up. No one kept it up. But it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”