By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — The combination of a sluggish economy, the city’s own budget problems, and increased operating expenses is causing a potential meltdown for the Lynch Ice Arena and those who use it.

High school athletic directors, the heads of hockey leagues and figure skating clubs, and other skaters are reeling from a recent letter from the city outlining an increase in the hourly rates for ice time for the coming season. The rates have gone up roughly 53 percent, from $140 an hour of ice time to $215 an hour.
According to Jack Carney, the city’s Public Works Director, the Lynch Arena will have the seconf highest fees in the local area, just under North Smithfied. Ice time at the state’s other rinks range from $150 to $180 an hour. “We don’t like to do it, but there are difficult times,” said Carney. “We needed to cut down on our losses. It’s a user fee issue.”
For an organization such as the Pawtucket Youth Hockey Association, which has enjoyed subsidized rates of $60 an hour of ice time for many years, the whopping increase poses an even greater problem, as league officials worry that the sport will become cost-prohibitive for many of its members.
The 33-year-old ice arena, as is the case with many municipal rinks, has historically operated at a deficit. According to Finance Director Ronald Wunschel, the deficit for the past few years has been at around the $300,000 mark, and the city has funded the difference through property taxes.
With increased energy and utility costs, city officials this year decided that the fees for ice time would have to be increased.
At first, they were going up by $10, but a decision was later made boost the ice time charge by $75.
Even with this increase, Wunschel said, he is still projecting a deficit of about $172,000 in the coming year’s operating budget.

At last Wednesday’s Finance Committee meeting to discuss the proposed fiscal year 2009 budget, it seemd that councilors had little patience left for the rink and its annual deficit scenario. “Let’s shut it down,” Councilor Paul Wildenhain urged, maintaining that the city couldn’t afford to subsidize the operation any more in the current economic times. He also maintained that fewer and fewer Pawtucket residents use the rink, and questioned why taxpayers should be called upon to help it operate.

After further study of the idea, councilors abandoned the idea of closing the rink. Yet, as Council President Mary Bray suggested and others agreed, that it is time for the city to look at privatizing or selling the facility outright.

William Mulholland, the city’s director of Parks and Recreation, said he realizes that the new ice time fees are not sitting well with the rink’s users. Yet, he defended the increases as necessary to defray costs and said he expects most of the rink’s users to return, largely due to the fact that there aren’t a lot of other ice facilities to compete with. “It’s a matter of supply and demand,” he said.

“It’s an expensive proposition to operate an ice rink, and we’ve been running at a deficit fior a number of years. We could absorb this before, but it is difficult to so now,” Mulholland said.

Carney agrees, saying that for decades, city officials considered the rink as a recreational facility for its residents. “But we can’t afford to run it this way anymore. However, someone could run it as a business,” he added.

Carney said, however, that due to type of compressors and refrigeration equipment, a temporary shut-down is not feasible. He recommends that the rink be kept open until it can be sold.

The rink is busy year-round, and especially active during hockey season, from September to April. In addition to the school and youth hockey, there is the Pawtucket and Providence Figure Skating Association, men’s leagues, and private individuals who rent ice time for their own use. The rink also has a “Learn to Skate” program, and public skating sessions.

However, Carney and Mulholland also agree that, due to changing demographics, there are less hockey players, figure skaters, and skaters in general who are using the rink, and more out-of-town residents. “We’re not a hockey community like we were in the 70s,” commented Mulholland.

The steep increase sent some shockwaves through the high school hockey community. While Tolman High School, as a city school, is subsidized for its ice costs, the private St. Raphael Academy and East Providence High School also call the Lynch Arena “home.”

Bruce Gammell, athletic director for St. Ray’s, said he is very concerned about the increase, and is exploring various options for trying to deal with the price increase. “We don’t have the money in the budget for this increase,” he said. “We might have to practice less...I don’t know right now,” he said.

Gammell said he has placed calls to a few other rinks and is is waiting for some responses. “Ideally, we want to stay (at Lynch), but that might not be possible,” he stated. “I’ve got to consider our costs. And I’ve got to provide the best quality hockey program I can for our kids,” he added.

Paul Amaral, the athletic director at East Providence High School, said that when he received the letter about the $215 ice fee, “It certainly made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.” As with St. Ray’s he said the hockey budget for the coming year has already been set, and the new cost of ice time refelcts a “significant jump.”

Amaral said the hockey program will somehow have to find supplemental funding or do extensive fundraising to make up the difference. However, he noted glumly, “These are precarious times” when it comes to asking for more money.

Amaral said that the time slot that the high school has at Lynch Arena works well for both the stduents and the rink, because of the high school’s earlier dismissal time. He also said that to travel to another rink, such as Mt. St. Charles, Burrillville, or Portsmouth, would just add to the transportation costs.

For the Pawtucket Youth Hockey Association, the situation is even more dire. Paul Given, the league’s president, said that league officials had been braced for an original increase in ice time that they had heard would be to $150 an hour. The new amount of $215 is almost four times what the league has tradiitonally had to pay for its hockey programs.

Given said the PYHA, which includes about 300 hockey children and young adults, paid the city roughly $48,000 in fees during the last season. “Now we have to come up with $180,000,” he said. Given noted that the organization is one of the lowest-priced hockey youth hockey programs in the local area, and, thanks to the city, it has been able to cater to players of “modest means.” He said he is appreciative of what the city has done in the past, but wishes there had been more been discussion about the financial situation five years ago.

Given said he and the other PYHA board members are scrambling to come up with a way to deal with the fee increase, so as to make it more palatable to families. “If nothing changes, we’ll have to cut to bare bones,” he said. He added, however, that the amount the league charges to players, which had been $205 for Pawtucket residents, does not just pay for ice time. The league’s budget also includes payment for referees, equipment, trophies and an end-of-season banquet.
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