A group of Montclair residents has been lobbying to take over management of the Clary Anderson Arena on Chestnut Street. The current contract, held by Montclair Skating, LLC, (a subsidiary of United Skates of America) since September, 2008, will be up in July, 2014. The nonprofit citizen’s group, Montclair Community Ice Arena (MCIA), says that while the transfer of control to the private company was initially expected to both save money and improve service at the arena, conditions at the ice rink have deteriorated since the Ohio-based operation took over.
In March, Councilor Cary Africk met with members of MCIA, who shared their alternative management plans and stressed the importance of local control over the arena.
“They were only too glad to show me their analysis and business plans,” Africk told Baristanet. “Their work was superb, and I felt that their model could be used to do much more than run the ice arena. It could run all of [town's] recreation’s programs.”
But the process has been very slow. The township took at least three months to issue a request for proposal (RFP) to allow the group to present a bid. Time is increasingly growing short, though, as the aging arena needs a great deal of work before it can open in September. The deadline for proposals is July 21.
Any change of management will likely come as a relief to Montclair residents who have frequented the Clary Anderson Arena since Montclair Skating’s takeover. Complaints of poor service during the initial 2008-09 winter skating season included chronically unanswered phones and unannounced closings of the snack bar. One teenage arena employee even said he was fired because his father had been sick. At the end of the first season, in April, 2009, the management contract was terminated based on a measure introduced by Councilor Kathryn Weller (now Deputy Mayor Kathryn Weller-Demming), who had opposed privatizing the arena in the first place.
Weller-Demming’s victory was short-lived, though, when failure to find a suitable replacement contractor and the urgency of repairing equipment in the arena in time for the 2009-10 season led then-Township Manager Joseph Hartnett to re-instate the deal with Montclair Skating in July, 2009.
Spearheading the current effort at returning the arena to community control is MCIA member Linda Bowers. While she couldn’t offer specifics of MCIA’s business plan — the proposal is still being finalized — Bowers is aware of the challenges she and other prospective bidders for managing the arena face. “Very little money been put back into the facility,” she said.
Of plans to get the rink ready in time for the 2011-12 skating season, she admits the schedule is tight, given the timing of the RFP and the deadline to answer it. The arena’s roof, in particular, has been one source of concern. It needs, what Africk calls “potentially expensive” work, and it too, has to be completed right away.
One detail about MCIA’s business plan that has been mentioned, is the use of solar panels for the roof to provide energy and pay for the roof repairs. Details are sketchy at this writing, but Africk has told Baristanet that, as he understands it, the solar panels would involve striking a deal known as a Power Purchase Agreement with whatever company would install the panels.
“They put in the solar [panels] and fix the roof,” he said. “You pay them for the power you use which is probably less costly then when you weren’t doing solar. They also get any tax credits.”
As the residents’ group prepares their answer to the RFP, Bowers and her group are carefully going over the as-yet unrevealed details. “There are still a lot of pieces that need to come together,” she says.
But Bowers is optimistic. MCIA seeks to improve the facility to make it more accessible for the area’s winter athletes and reverse the decline of the past several years.
“We have had very positive feedback from residents of the town and residents of other communities,” Bowers says. “The arena is part of our town, and we want to preserve it for future generations.”
Montclair Skating was unavailable for comment.
The agreement with Montclair Skating was terminated by the Town at the end of March this year. The contract requires 6 months notice. So, I believe, as of September 28th, approximately, they will be gone.
I can’t say enough how impressed I’ve been with this MCIA group! I hope they can do lots of other things for us! (I’m big on decreasing costs while dramatically increasing service, something they seem to be emphasizing!)