Town reports progress with Metropolis Rink

By Jay Turner

This coming Sunday, February 28, will mark the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Canton’s Metropolis Skating Rink, and while the rink still sits in ruins and frustration continues to mount over the lack of progress with the rebuilding effort, new information from town officials suggests that there could finally be some real cause for optimism.

Metropolis Rink is pictured on the day of the roof collapse last February. (Moira Sweetland photo)

The latest news is so encouraging, in fact, that Recreation Director Janet Maguire was recently advised to beef up her proposed rink budget for the next fiscal year with the thinking that the facility could perhaps be operational by early 2017.

In a meeting with the Finance Committee on February 4, Maguire said she had initially brought the budget for the rink “down to the bare bones” but has since forwarded an amended budget with additional funds to the Finance Department and the Board of Selectmen.

Maguire told the FinCom that she considers herself a “realist” and still questions whether the rink could be completed within that timeframe. However, she said the town is at least leaving the door open as it continues to work with the insurer and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which leases the rink to the town.

“As the Board of Selectmen have expressed, the town’s intent is to get the rink back on line,” she said. “Can I tell you definitively when that will happen this evening? I cannot. Is it possible if everything fell in place that we could open next year? Yes.”

Perhaps most significantly, Finance Director Jim Murgia said the town recently received an insurance check for $1.8 million, which represents the “undisputed amount” based on the insurer’s estimate of rink damages.

“Some of their estimate, they know that we’re not accepting it yet, because we think it might be too low,” Murgia said. “But they’re saying, ‘Here’s $1.8 million as of right now,’ so we do have that.”

Murgia said the insurance proceeds still have to be formally accepted by town meeting voters — meaning that the town would need to have a plan in place by May in order to have access to the funds in the coming year. Otherwise, he said the town would have to wait until the next town meeting, or they could petition the state Department of Revenue for permission to use the money without town meeting approval.

“So there is a mechanism to spend the money without town meeting being involved by getting the DOR to approve it,” he said.

Reached last week, Selectmen Chairman John Connolly said he shares the frustration of residents and the local hockey community and stressed that the board is doing all that it can to get the rink up and running.

While declining to get into specifics, Connolly said the town and the DCR have had productive dialogue and are now on the same page, which is “huge,” he said.

“We are looking forward to going into a partnership with the DCR,” he said, “and to do what’s right for the town of Canton and do what’s right for the DCR and the state of Massachusetts.”

Connolly also reiterated the board’s long-held position that it is time for a new rink and that a simple repair will not suffice.

“There’s no question at all, the town wants a new rink,” he said. “We don’t just want it rebuilt, and we’ll do all we can to get a new rink.”

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