A state commission that oversees the aesthetic integrity of the Statehouse grounds decided last week not to allow the skating rink this winter.
Paul Carnahan, a member of the Capitol Complex Commission, said his motion to vote was not seconded by other commissioners and so died. He said that aesthetic concerns were the primary reason the commission did not approve the rink again. “One member stated that he felt that the rink as a temporary structure did not complement the dignity of the Statehouse,” said Carnahan.
Commission members also said that approving the rink for a second year “would be raising false hopes that we were going to continue approving the rink permanently,” according to Carnahan.
Despite a report on the rink’s pilot season which showed that nearly 500 skaters visited the 50-by-100-foot rink during its 27 days of operation last winter, Carnahan said commissioners observed “the small size of the rink did not really allow it to meet its goals as a skating rink for all.”
The rink, which was owned by the city of Montpelier, organized by a volunteer committee, and provisionally hosted on the Statehouse lawn, operated from January to March of this year.
In reporting the decision to the Montpelier City Council Assistant City Manager Susan Allen said the commission had found aesthetic fault with the rink’s fencing. “[They] thought it was unattractive and looked like a horse stable,” said Allen. According to Allen it would cost $10,000 to satisfy the commission’s aesthetic requirements of the fence, more than a third again of the original project’s entire budget.
Fencing for the rink was required by the state.
According to Carnahan, the fence was required to protect skaters from falling off the rink, which had been raised on one side to compensate for a slope in the lawn.
Members of the Put a Rink On It Committee, the volunteer group that organized the rink, said they were disappointed with the state’s decision. Organizers said almost 500 skaters used the rink last winter, and a survey of users indicated strong support for the rink to be continued in future seasons.
Put a Rink On It had been working to get a rink on the Statehouse lawn since 2014, according to organizers.
In 2015 the city of Montpelier agreed to take ownership of the rink and act as applicant in seeking permission from the state to use the Statehouse lawn. In 2016 the state agreed to allow it for one pilot season, on the condition that the city sign a memorandum of understanding obligating it to staff and fence the rink.
Put a Rink On It raised funds and recruited volunteers to staff the rink, and in the winter of early 2017 put up the rink, fence and all.
In a report on the pilot season of the rink organizers said “the state did not report any concerns to project contacts about the rink while it was installed.”
The report also says that organizers took down the rink at the beginning of March when the weather warmed to avoid “the aesthetics of having a non-functional rink on the lawn.”
The white painted paddock-style fence placed around the rink last winter is now being stored by the city of Montpelier.
Organizers do not appear to have had an opportunity to address the commission’s concerns before the decision to discontinue the rink was made. “We gladly would have worked with the Capitol Complex Commission to address their concerns for a more enhanced structure,” said Kimberly McKee, a member of Put a Rink On It, in a press release by the group shortly after the commission’s decision.
At this time organizers are looking for another venue to host the rink, possibly the Montpelier High School or the green outside the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Carnahan also offered a suggestion. “the Put a Rink on It Committee might want to consider locating the rink in front of the Supreme Court building and next to the Pavilion building. It seems to me that that is an attractive location that would avoid many of the problems that the Statehouse location ran into.”
