2 new sites weighed for Brewer ice rink

BREWER – Now that residents have approved the site of the new Brewer Community School, where to move the outdoor ice rink remains a question.

The new elementary-middle school will be built at the closed Pendleton Street School site, where the ice rink is located.

Officials at the Brewer Parks and Recreation Department have discussed the problem for the last several months, director Ken Hanscom said Wednesday.

“I had two sites” under consideration, he said. “One was across the street at Sunset Park, and the other one was at Washington Street School. We’re leaning toward Washington Street School.”

“That’s very preliminary,” Hanscom said.

In February 2005, the City Council officially renamed the outdoor ice rink the Thomas Caldwell Rink, in honor of Caldwell’s years of dedication to the Brewer Youth Hockey League.

The rink sits where the new school’s visitor parking lot will be.

There is already a small ice rink at the Washington Street School, and “there are Little League fields there and it would make it a nice complex,” Hanscom said.

A parks and recreation advisory board has suggested the new rink location, but the idea needs to go before the City Council for funding and the planning board for site approval.

“Right now, we’re planning on dismantling that rink this summer,” Hanscom said.

The Thomas Caldwell Rink is the only outdoor rink in Brewer where ice hockey is allowed, he said. The recent cold weather has allowed several layers of ice to be laid, but several inches are needed before there is good ice.

“I’m hoping by this weekend, probably by Friday night, to have the lights on” at the Pendleton Street rink, Hanscom said. “Doyle Field, which is much smaller, is already open.”

nricker@bangordailynews.net

990-8190