Free programs for residents that were promised in Riverhead Town’s contract with the manager of the town-owned ice rink in Calverton never took place, officials acknowledged in interviews last week.
Additionally, discounts for programs at the rink meant for residents, also promised in the contract, were scarcely advertised and used by only a handful of people, according to data provided by the town’s Recreation Department and the Peconic Hockey Foundation, the nonprofit organization the town contracted with to build and manage the rink.
Residents are supposed to receive several free skating and hockey lessons over the course of the year, as well as free weekly public skating sessions, according to the town’s contract with Peconic Hockey.
“I can tell you they didn’t happen,” said Kevin McCormack, the ice rink’s director. The town and Peconic Hockey share the blame, he said. “We have to work together to do better on that part of it. And so I know that we’re going to work towards doing a better job of getting that done for the upcoming spring and summer.”
Residents are also supposed to receive discounts on certain programs at the rink, including for lessons, skating time and summer camps. But according to data shared with RiverheadLOCAL, the resident discount at the rink has only been used 44 times, and only 9 residents have signed up for the pass necessary to obtain the discounts. Those discounts have only been advertised once: in an email from the Recreation Department to people who signed up for information about Recreation Department programs.
Free and discounted programs for residents at the ice rink were touted by town officials as benefits of hosting Peconic Hockey’s ice rink on town land. In the town’s agreement with Peconic Hockey, the organization would build the domed ice rink and outdoor deck rink facility on land at Veterans Memorial Park, donate it to the town and manage the facility. The town would pay for utility hookups to the site, provide bathrooms and a parking lot for the rinks and reimburse Peconic Hockey for electricity, gas and water up to an annual total of $150,000, plus an increase based on the consumer price index.
Building and maintaining the infrastructure necessary for the ice rink, an effort that is still ongoing, has cost the town hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours of work for town employees.
“I mean, it’s fair to say that thus far, we haven’t gotten our money’s worth in terms of people using the [discounts] and everything else,” Supervisor Tim Hubbard said. “I think it was poorly marketed and I think that’s going to change now.”
Town officials said last week they are aware free programs were not implemented and they will have a more active hand in overseeing the management of the ice rink facility going forward. They attributed the lack of free programs and town involvement in the rink’s operation to a wide variety of things, chief among them a “learning curve” for both Recreation Department staff and Peconic Hockey.
Under the agreement between the town and Peconic Hockey, Riverhead’s recreation superintendent has an important hand in managing the ice rink. The superintendent — which the contract refers to as the “Riverhead Recreation Director” — has the power to set the hours of operation for the ice rink facility, review and modify the ice rink’s program schedule and have a hand in developing the fees for the facility.
But that has not happened so far, Recreation Superintendent Raymond Coyne said.
“We were not on the same page with the Town Board in figuring out who was truly in charge of this,” Coyne said.
Peconic Hockey has shared information with him about their fees and hours, Coyne said, but he wasn’t sure whether he had the power to make any changes. Coyne said he met with the Town Board a few weeks ago in a closed-door executive session to ask whether he was permitted to exercise his powers under the contract; the Town Board said yes.
Coyne said the ice rink was the “last thing on” the recreation department’s mind when it opened. The department was moving its office to Town Hall, had just launched a new system for scheduling recreation programs and was preparing for its “busy season,” he said.
Hubbard said he and the rest of the board discussed with Coyne more benefits for Riverhead residents at the rink, requesting free events during school vacation weeks and during off-peak hours.
“I know those talks were had early on with Peconic Hockey, so there’s no reason it shouldn’t have been implemented already,” Hubbard said. “But I know they were also kind of like waiting to see how things were playing out, in terms of how busy they were going to be, and when the available time period would be, and everything else. But it is being worked on…”
One program, suggested by Council Member Denise Merrifield, would be a free skating event during the holiday season, according to Coyne.
Rink manager McCormack said Peconic Hockey meets “regularly with the town recreation department. And there were some free things that we were going to offer for the town residents that we’re working very diligently with the rec department to get those set up for April — next spring and summer — that we were going to do a free public session for the town residents one day.“
According to an exhibit attached to the town’s contract with Peconic Hockey, the organization promised to offer select free programs to town residents throughout the year:
- One free weekday public skating session each week, from April to August
- Two free learn-to-play hockey clinics, one in September and one in March or April
- Two free learn-to-skate clinics, one in September and one in March or April
- One week of summer learn-to-skate camp, in June, for the first 40 residents to sign up
McCormack said those free programs never went on, but “are out there to offer for the town” and would need to be coordinated and scheduled.
The contract exhibit also spells out the discounts for programs at the ice rink:
- $3 off admission to public skating. (The document states this will be approximately 20-25% off the price)
- 20% off learn-to-skate and learn-to-play programs for both children and adults
- $3 off freestyle figure skating sessions
- $4 off admission to open hockey and stick and puck sessions
- A discount for the cost of practice time for a high school team (20% during peak hours and 30% during off peak hours)
- 20% off summer camp registration
- “Minimal cost” for a physical education program for school students offered during the day
Those discounts have been scarcely used. According to McCormack, the town resident discount has been used only 44 times at the ice rink.
“If the Town Board or Ray [Coyne] has any ways we can better market [discounts] we’re happy to do that,” McCormack said. “We have regularly sent the Recreation Department all of our information about programs in order for them to market it to the town residents. We recently just signed up to get put in the town recreation booklet… we’re going to be in there with an ad.”
McCormack added that Peconic Hockey hosted a free public skating session at the ice rink for employees at Town Hall “as a thank you for all the efforts that people who helped us get” the rink complete.
There has been barely any marketing for the resident discounts at the rink and even Recreation Department employees are not fully informed about what’s available or how residents can access the discounts.
When a reporter went on a recent Tuesday morning to the Recreation Department’s office at Town Hall and asked whether there were free or discounted programs available at the ice rink, front desk employees told him that all the programs at the rink were run through Peconic Hockey and to visit the ice rink’s website to register.
Throughout the brief conversation, employees did not inform the reporter of any discounts or resident-exclusive programs available. The reporter did not identify himself as a member of the media, so that he would not be treated differently than any other resident.
The Riverhead Recreation Department’s last two brochures and its website do not mention discounts or programs at the Peconic Ice Rinks. The only mention of the ice rinks on the department’s website is in the “community partners” subsection of its “community projects” tab, which shows a logo for the Peconic Hockey Foundation. Clicking the logo brings you to the Peconic Ice Rink’s website, where you can register for the programs; resident discounts are not mentioned on the website.
Coyne said the department sent out one email to people registered for recreation programs in April; roughly half of people who received the email opened it and .4% clicked on a link through it, according to department staff. And there has been only one joint social media post between Peconic Hockey and the Recreation Department on Instagram; the post does not mention any discounts.
To obtain the discounts at the ice rink, a town resident must first obtain a digital pass the Recreation Department created specifically for proving residency to Peconic Hockey. A resident must contact Recreation Department staff and provide proof of their residency to obtain the digital pass.
There are only 9 residents registered for the digital pass, according to data provided by the Recreation Department.
Coyne said there was confusion about whether the town Recreation Department or Peconic Hockey was responsible for hosting free programs and marketing the resident discount to town residents.
“We figured it would just happen organically, in a way that… Peconic [Hockey] would be marketing it — it’s their rink. They should be marketing it,” Coyne said. “We didn’t know if it’s a recreation program or not.”
“We didn’t push it, and we have to market it,” Coyne said.
Council Member Ken Rothwell, the board member who led the development of the ice rink facility and has become a financial supporter of Peconic Hockey through the purchase of an advertisement at the ice rink, provided more explanations than Coyne for why the free programs never went on.
He said the town was unable to market the discounts at the ice rinks because it does not have the budget to do so. (The Riverhead Recreation Department does have a budget for marketing and distributes brochures throughout the year to inform residents about recreation programs.)
“It’s certainly available to them,” Rothwell said of the discount. “I think it will be marketed more.”
He also said that the rink wasn’t promoted by the town because permanent bathroom facilities aren’t in place at the rink. Right now, a bathroom trailer and portable bathrooms are at the facility and maintained by town employees. More permanent bathroom facilities being installed are “the final component to putting this whole puzzle together,” he said.
Rothwell said the free programs haven’t been scheduled by Peconic Hockey because of difficulties with maintaining the rink facility. He said Peconic Hockey has had to shut down the rink a few times throughout the year because of equipment at the rink needing to be replaced or repaired.
“I think there was uncertainty in the beginning, because the ice rink — it was a used structure that was purchased over from Rhode Island,” Rothwell said. “They had problems with the chillers; there was times when the ice wasn’t freezing the right way. And more recently they had to shut down for, like, two weeks to replenish the ice and do things. Difficulty with Zambonis and the like. Now they’re getting all the kinks out [and] slowly becoming more operational.”
McCormack said Peconic Hockey is “very happy to be here in the Town of Riverhead and we’re very happy with this partnership, and we would like nothing better than to have more Town of Riverhead residents participate in programs here,” he said. “And whatever we need to do to make that happen, we’re standing at the ready to do that.”
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