Friday, June 29th, 2007
LOCKPORT: Ice rink group searching for sites

Staff Reports - Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
A private volunteer group is forging ahead with its plans to get an ice rink developed in Lockport.

The Lockport Community Ice Rink committee went public with its ideal, establishment of a professionally operated ice arena and indoor recreation complex, this past January. Since then, according to organizer John Ottaviano, volunteers have accomplished things that make him confident it can be real.

Private investors are being recruited, a list of promising grant sources is identified and a range of professionals are getting on board to take the concept to completion, he said Thursday.

All that’s needed is a clear game plan.

“We have investors and supporters. We know this project can be done,” Ottaviano said. “Now, I guess, the questions are: how much do we want to spend and what do we want to build?” he said.

The committee is communicating with owners of four possible places where an arena could be sited: State property at 500 West Ave.; Day Road Park; Lockport Family YMCA, which has 30 acres on Snyder Drive; and Kenan Center Arena, where a rink was operated for many years into the 1980s. Committee representatives met with the Kenan Center board of directors earlier this week.

While pursuing not-for-profit status so it can accept grants, committee members have used their personal contacts to enlist a handful of private investors.

Ottaviano declined to say how much money has been raised or from whom; he identified the investors only loosely as people with ties to hockey from New York City to Ontario and beyond.

Also this week, the committee met with professional consultants who can help out with various aspects of rink development. The consultants are Scheid Architectural of Buffalo; Stadium Consultants International/Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects of Toronto; Mollenberg Betz Inc. mechanical and refrigeration contractors of Buffalo; Battaglia & Associates grant procurement specialists of Tonawanda; Rice Specialty Risk, a division of First Niagara Risk Management; Christina M. Coyle, a professional planner from Lockport; and E-3 Communications, a public relations firm with offices in Buffalo and Albany.

The consultants are considered to be on board with the effort, although no contracts have been signed, Ottaviano said. The “top shelf team” will help the committee wade through the issues of site selection, budgeting and financing, facility size and amenities and selling the total effort to investors.

The committee is pushing for a full recreation facility, with ice rinks and dry gym space for indoor sports like track, soccer and lacrosse. Rinks alone are not financially viable, volunteers said.

Early estimates suggest rec facility development will cost anywhere between $3 million and $15 million. The lower range assumes the group will retrofit an existing building.

No timetable is set for fundraising or construction. According to Ottaviano, it probably will be least two years before anything gets built.

The committee includes John “Tate” Pitrello, Lockport High School assistant principal Todd Sukdolak, Donna Pieszala and new recruit Henry Schmidt.

Published by the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal: http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/local_story_180140843.html