Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to reflect the correct space reduction under Option A.
Nearly $2.4 million has been cut from the municipal rink plans, bringing the Municipal Rink Building Committee closer to the $30 million budget approved by Town Meeting in May 2023.
After meeting with the Select Board on Monday, the committee is moving forward with its plans to ask Town Meeting next month to reallocate funds to support a $32 million budget instead. In its current form, the project is estimated to cost nearly $34.3 million.
A special Town Meeting is scheduled to open June 5 at 7:15 p.m., with a discussion on the McLean redevelopment project anticipated to precede an article related to the skating rink. According to a note from Town Clerk Ellen O’Brien Cushman, the special Town Meeting — embedded within the regular Town Meeting schedule — is a legally separate meeting that will begin at 7:15 p.m. after the moderator has convened the annual Town Meeting at 7 p.m. and recessed the meeting with the intention of resuming later in the night.
Previous coverage
Last week, Rink Committee Chair Mark Haley shared two paths forward: Option A, which reduces the overall square footage of the building but manages to maintain programming with a $32 million budget, and Option B, which cuts the project down to the $30 million budget and, in doing so, sacrifices both square footage and programming.
As part of Option A, the building is reduced by nearly 2,584 square feet — a result of cutting down the lobby to no longer include a concessions arcade. Concessions, instead, will be moved elsewhere and function as window service only on the exterior of the building. It also involves removing the solar panels (a savings of $1.3 million) but keeping the roof solar panel-ready.
Other changes that have been made include swapping out the refrigerant system for a more environmentally friendly option. By choosing a CO2 system, which is $600,000 more expensive than the freon system the building was originally designed with, the town would ideally save on water and operational costs going forward.
“We’ve tried to keep everything that the town wanted, that we promised at Town Meeting,” Haley said.
Option B, meanwhile, would result in a significant loss of “program” features, according to Haley. The square footage would be more dramatically impacted by the loss of a bay on the back side of the building and the reduction of the lobby at the front. Recreation storage would be lost, the dressing rooms would likely need to be redesigned, and two Belmont High School locker rooms would be lost.
This option also includes sticking with the freon system. The risk with this, however, is that the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards may change in the coming years, making freon costly. This wouldn’t necessarily prevent the system from being used, but it would cost the town more significantly in maintenance and repairs.
Haley said Option B would require an entire redesign of the building, delaying the project by several months, and in turn, adding to the overall cost of the project and losing another season.
“It’s almost going to be the building we had before, with solid walls,” he said.
Select Board Member Roy Epstein assured the public the additional money wouldn’t come from the taxpayers but elsewhere in the budget. Town Administrator Patrice Garvin said one potential avenue for funding would be to use the Kendall Insurance Fund, which currently has a balance of $2.1 million. The fund was established in the late 1990s after the fire at the former Kendall School, where the Beech Street Center is now located.
“This is a use for the money that is more than appropriate,” Garvin said.
Other possible avenues for funding include the capital endowment fund and capitalization stabilization funds.
After a presentation by the rink committee, Select Board members expressed support for bringing the question to a special Town Meeting. Epstein said the building would not only serve the residents of Belmont, but would attract visitors from out of town.
“I think it’s a very worthwhile investment in the town,” he said. “I recognize there’s always something else you can do with the money, but in my view, this is a high-value use for the money.”
Select Board Vice Chair Elizabeth Dionne acknowledged that nobody was happy to be in this position. “But I do think we have to think about the long-term future,” she said. “For a real and painful but still marginal cost, having a more functional building that can serve the community better — I’m inclined to support Option A and to support a special Town Meeting.”
