Mayor & Council explore raising donations for Pyanoe Plaza skate rink
December 12, 2009 by admin
Filed under Downtown News, Featured
An ice skating rink in Pyanoe Plaza? The Mayor & Council heard a presentation at their December 2, 2009 meeting from Bob Valvano of Marturano Recreation about an affordable new ice rink product developed by Scansis, a Norwegian company, that could soon turn Pyanoe Plaza into Belmar’s own Rockefeller Center. This new rink design avoids the compressor noise and high-energy and maintenance costs of a traditional refrigerated rink by using a synthetic plastic ice surface called Scan-ICE. The rink surface comes in inter-locking plastic sections that can be quickly assembled using only mallets, and installed on any flat surface. The Scansis rink can be used in any weather conditions, including the warm weather months.
A Scansis synthetic ice rink requires no electricity and can be quickly assembled on any flat surface. Here it is being enjoyed on a September day.
Click here to see a video of the Scansis rink in action
Councilman Matt Doherty learned about the Scansis rink system at the League of Municipalities Exhibition in November, and thought it would provide a much-needed form of winter recreation for Belmar’s children, while also helping to bring business to our downtown during the long winter season. He invited a representative of the company to make a presentation to the Mayor and Council on December 2nd. Based on the Council’s positive reception to the idea, and with the understanding that no taxpayer funds would be used to purchase the rink, he subsequently contacted Old Bridge Township, which used the Scansis rink on a trial basis last summer.
According to Tom Badcock, Old Bridge’s Recreation Director, Old Bridge already owns an in-door refrigerated rink which operates six months during the year. They tried the Scansis rink last summer so that youth hockey teams could practice during the off-season. He said he could not have been more pleased with the results of the trial, and described it as “overwhelmingly successful.” He said that the Scan-ICE panels fit tightly together and there are there no seams. Indeed, it is so easy to disassemble and reassemble a Scansis rink that the sample rink used in Old Bridge was packed up, shipped to the west coast and recently installed in the Jay Leno Show Studio where it was used for a 5-minute segment featuring NHL hall-of-famer Luc Robitaille.
Last week, Mayor Pringle, Councilman Doherty and DPW Superintendent Andy Meuerle met with Bob Valvano at Pyanoe Plaza to inspect the site. They calculated that an approximately 3,000 square foot rink, measuring 50 by 60, could be installed on either the east or west side of the Christmas tree in the plaza, leaving ample walkway area for the public and customers of the shops and restaurants in the Plaza. If the rink proves to be as successful as hoped, it would be no problem to purchase additional sections in the future to increase the size of the rink. In fact, one of the many advantages of a Scansis rink is that it could even be installed around the Pyanoe Plaza Christmas Tree.
As shown in this photo, Scansis ice rinks can installed around trees (like the Christmas tree in Pyanoe Plaza).
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