LINCOLN – If nature cooperates, residents will be able to start skating on the town’s new hockey rink at Prince Thomas Park by the middle of next week, town officials said Friday.

Town Public Works, Recreation and Fire department workers spent the day assembling and pouring water for the $450 portable rink and will need only a few days of subfreezing temperatures for the rink to be ready, Recreation Department Director Shelly Crosby said.

“I’m saying it will be ready by Wednesday because I don’t want people to be disappointed if it’s not ready sooner,” Crosby said Friday. “We are hoping that the weather will freeze that up in the next few days.”

The ice probably will be ready to go by Monday, said Jerry Davis, the town’s code enforcement officer. Davis spent the day with firefighters Corey Stratton and John Spearin and recreation worker Ted Martin building and filling the rink after public works employees cleared snow from the park’s basketball court.

“It’s going to be a good spot. It’s well-lit and safe,” Davis said. “We’ll be contacting police and the game wardens to ensure no snowsleds get used on it. It’s a good addition to the town, a definite plus for the kids.”

Residents can call Crosby’s office at 794-6548 or check the town’s Web site, lincolnmaine.org, for an announcement on the rink’s opening, she said.

Residents would not have the rink but for a North Carolina family, whose members described themselves as “rabid hockey fans,” having answered a challenge early last month from Town Manager Glenn Aho by donating $425 for the rink. Aho contributed the other $25. The family, which has several relatives in Lincoln and last visited about five years ago, has asked that its name be withheld.

The rink would have been built sooner had not the record-setting snow starting last month forced the diversion of public works crews to snow clearing and other maintenance tasks, Crosby said. The rink materials arrived Dec. 13.

The rink holds about 2.5 inches of ice and comes fully marked for hockey, with red and blue lines, Aho said. It should last a few years.

“It’s got a neoprene bottom. It’s almost like a bathtub,” Davis said. “You keep shimmying up the sides as high as you want the water to go.”

Now town officials are raising money for hockey goals and other equipment, Crosby said. The Town Council authorized the creation of a donation fund last month.

Anyone interested in contributing to the fund can contact Crosby at 794-6548 or mail checks made out to “Town of Lincoln” to 63 Main St., Lincoln 04457, attention: Recreation Department.

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