Yesterday afternoon Marion McEttrick, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, along with Town Administrator Kevin Mearn and Planning Director Bill Clark met with senior DCR staff to discuss Milton’s response to an RFP to grant a 5 year permit to manage the Ulin Rink. It has been a long time coming. The DCR granted Milton 5 extensions to the respond to the RFP which was issued in January of this year.

The meeting, which lasted for about 2 hours, was a productive one, according to Administrator Mearn.He confirmed that today the bid was accepted and the town was now issuing an RFP for assistance for the rink’s daily operations. Mearn acknowledged that the timelines are a little tight. There will be a two-week bid process and the current plan is to open the rink on schedule, September 15th.

With this important hurdle behind them the Selectmen now need to circle back and urge elected state officials to take action on the pending legislation. Senator Joyce has a bill that was approved by the Senate and Representative Timilty has a bill approved by the House. Both would afford the town a long-term lease, Joyce’s calls for a 25 year lease and Timilty’s a 10 year lease. A long-term lease would provide the town with much more flexibility and control over the management of the facility than the current permit allows.

There is a local group forming a non-profit that may seek to bid once a lease has been secured. There are also a couple of rink management firms that currently operate a number of state rinks. FMC being the largest. There is currently only one rink managed by a non-profit (Beaver Country Day). You can find a list of rinks and their respective operators here: Rink Partnership Program Operators

A review of the pending legislation will be discussed in a subsequent post.