Amherst rink project: Water over the common

Published on February 16, 2007

GORDON DANIELS

Amherst Department of Public Works employees Bob Zakaitis and Steve Feltovic spray water on the Town Common last week in an effort to create a skating rink. The project has been abandoned because of problems with gravity and the strength of the February sun.

The idea of creating a skating area on the Amherst town common, advanced by the town's manager, wasn't as slick as hoped.

Public works crews spent many hours Wednesday through Saturday applying water to a 100-by-120-foot area of the common, at the urging of Town Manager Laurence Shaffer.

But on Tuesday, the area was not covered by ice, and in fact had numerous grassy patches.

The problem was that the temperature approached freezing on Saturday, and the strong February sun and slight slope caused the water to melt and flow downhill toward Boltwood Avenue, said Guilford Mooring, the public works superintendent. So the crews abandoned the project and started preparing for plowing the snow from today's storm, he said. Shaffer suggested the rink be created after seeing people skating in Italy, while Shaffer was on a vacation there last month. He said last week he hoped the DPW crews could create an ice slab 6 inches thick.

Such skating rinks used to be created near War Memorial Pool and the Regional Middle School and on East Street, the South Amherst Common and Pine Street. But the practice was curtailed because of liability issues - and the fact that public works crews become busy plowing snow in the winter, Mooring said.

Mooring warned last week that the February sun might foil Shaffer's project.

Workers also cited the slope of the common as a problem while they worked on the ice.