Barre arena no longer on thin ice thanks to volunteers

BARRE — On an October afternoon four days away from opening night, the Barre BOR Arena, with a coat of fresh paint and the ice bright and smooth, was quiet and still. 

It’s hard to imagine that just a week earlier, the rink was nothing but a concrete slab with more than a dozen people racing around the clock to fix the rink’s many broken pipes in time for the winter season. 

“There were 14 plumbers in this trench right here from different companies in central (Vermont),” said Trym Chouinard, one of the volunteers. “They all compete for the same jobs, get what I’m saying? But they’re all standing here together, working together for a common cause.” 

The Barre city manager first announced on October 1 that the rink might not open due to the discovery that the pipes that cool the ice had broken down. That closure meant that hockey teams, figure skaters and local enthusiasts might have to crowd into other local rinks, costing them valuable practice time and the loss of a venue where they love to skate. 

Chouinard, owner of a general contracting company, was devastated. His family donated some money to help build the rink in the 1970s. Chouinard once played hockey in this rink, and his kids now play youth travel hockey. 

“It’s a huge investment of time and money, but they love to play it,” he said. 

He’s not the only volunteer with a personal connection to the ice. Soon after the announcement, Chouinard got a call from Ed Patterson, a heating business owner whose son is a goalie for the Spaulding High School hockey team. 

“He called me in a tizzy and said, ‘This is ridiculous, and ‘We got to do something,’” Chouinard said. 

Ultimately, the effort to fix the ice pulled in more than 20 volunteers, according to Tom Baker, Barre’s facilities director. Not only did volunteers contribute roughly 160 man hours, but local businesses donated supplies and provided materials at a steep discount. 

On October 23, city manager Patrick Cushing said via press release that the issue had been completely resolved. He thanked the volunteers for making it happen. 

“Committing City cash reserves alone to another repair attempt with an uncertain outcome would have been difficult to justify,” he said in the press release. “The donated labor and  materials allowed us to make that attempt while limiting the demand on those reserves.”

Baker said the problems with the rink weren’t new, only the scale of it. 

“When you touch something that’s 50 years old, it’s an old system, and you touch it here, and then it breaks,” he said.

Earlier this month, Barre city mayor Thom Lauzon said it was only a matter of time before the rink would need a more permanent upgrade beyond the recent repairs. 

“I think we got a little complacent and figured, ‘OK, if there’s a problem, we’ll just fix it,’” Lauzon said at the time. “And it’s time to take a real hard look at replacing the system. I don’t want to go through this again.”

But repairing the rink has benefits, too. Lauzon said the arena earns the city about $130,000 in revenue each year, primarily from the cost of rink rentals. 

Chouinard pointed out that the arena is also relatively affordable compared to other local rinks. The BOR costs $220 per hour to rent, according to the city’s website. Four other arenas within a one-hour drive of Barre range from $235 to $265 per hour to rent, according to a VTDigger review of rink websites. 

Rink costs are one factor in why hockey is one of the most expensive youth sports, so anything that can keep costs down is essential. 

“You need to have this stay as a community rink,” Chouinard said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Barre arena no longer on thin ice thanks to volunteers.