SHEHADI & WATERS: Rink Plan and Process “Highly Flawed”

Submitted by James Waters and Al Shehadi

On Tuesday the RTM voted 52 to 136 (with 6 abstentions) to reject Municipal Improvement (MI) status for the Town’s proposal to build a new rink in Morlot Park in Byram by “flipping” the location of the rink and the current baseball field.

Despite overwhelming support for replacing the current, aging, Hamill Rink, the RTM came to this decision after multiple hearings in which it became clear both the Town plan and the lengthy process for producing that plan were highly flawed. The process was dominated by one vocal stakeholder group, failed to get widespread community buy-in, and never answered basic questions posed by the RTM, such as providing a legitimate cost estimate for the plan.

So where do we go from here? We see a clear path forward.

• Disband the current Rink User Committee and create a new Rink Building Committee, modeled after the highly successful building committees for Central Middle School and the Old Greenwich School to ensure proper oversight going forward. Members should have relevant backgrounds, including construction, finance, legal, land use and public relations; there should be balanced representation of Town stakeholders and members should be vetted and approved by the RTM as is customary for town building committees;

• Appropriate a modest sum for the Rink Building Committee to undertake a short, focused, planning process; the RTM will be happy to consider an interim appropriation alongside Building Committee nominees, as soon as March 2025;

• Focus on answering four key questions:

o Can the rink be rebuilt in its current location?
o If not, where is the best place in town for it to be located?
o Whether rebuilding in place or in a new location, how can it be done to ensure consistency with the Town’s Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD)? and,
o If we rebuild in place, how do we provide reasonable ice time while a new rink is built?

• Hold public hearings to ensure the variety of voices and interests in the rink have an opportunity for input; such hearings should be held in the evening to make it easy for residents to attend and should be well publicized;

• Obtain credible, third-party, cost estimates of all options, including re-building in place;

• Return to the Board of Selectman, Planning and Zoning Commission and RTM with objective answers to the above questions and a plan with widespread community buy-in, for a new MI approval and funding to complete construction documents and a final site plan.

We think the above can be accomplished in 12 months or less. The above steps would ensure any plan that goes to the BET and RTM for final funding approval has broad community support for the chosen option and cost required to build a new, quality rink for our Town.

The Town is building a rink that will serve for the next 50 years or more. Taking 12 months to do this right is well worth the effort and, we believe, will prove to be a faster path to building the new rink that our Town needs.

James Waters
Al Shehadi

About the Authors:

James Waters is Chair of the RTM Budget Overview Committee and Chair of the Old Greenwich School Building Committee. The views expressed here are his own

Al Shehadi is one of the four Byram residents who referred the current MI to the RTM; he is the Byram Neighborhood Association’s (BNA) Treasurer and Chair of the BNA’s Land Use Committee.