Special Town Meeting Approves Purchase of Ristuccia Arena

Over the summer the Bruins announced they were leaving their practice facility to move closer to Boston, forcing town officials to see if the town should purchase the rink for the public’s use. Thursday night Special Town Meeting made that decision, giving officials the approval to purchase the rink at a cost of $2.25 million.

A motion to reconsider following the initial vote was defeated.

Town officials plan to make an official bid on the rink in upcoming months when the rink’s current lease is up, but wanted to be ready to be first in line to make that offer, hence Thursday night’s Special Town Meeting asking voters to approve the funding. The current tenant has the right of first refusal which expires in June. By getting Town Meeting’s approval Thursday night, town officials will be ready to make that offer.

The purchase of the rink doesn’t impact taxes as officials were not asking Town Meeting members for a debt exclusion or an override, rather they wanted permission to appropriate the funds to allow the town to use its borrowing power to leverage the cash that would be use to run the facility.

The town acquiring the rink means for the first three years, the town would be a landlord in essence. Town officials wouldn’t control the operations of the rink or have control of the schedule during that period. They would be making $12,000 a month in revenue during that three year time period, realizing in excess of $100,000 in net revenue from the facility.

The rink will cost the town an estimated $2.38 million which includes $2.25 million to purchase the rink itself, followed by another $130,000 in equipment costs once the current lease expires.

Questions have been raised about the role the rink has played in town. Specifically, town residents and teams having the ability to use the rink. When it was built 30 years ago, the plan discussed and approved would allow access to the rink for both. However, the rink has catered more toward other interests over local ones. Local hockey teams play at rinks in other towns, as an example, not at Ristuccia.

The decision to purchase the rink will allow town hockey teams and ice skating clubs, as well as residents a place of their own.

It was only two months ago town selectmen discussed the authorization of funds and whether or not to call a Special Town Meeting on the issue.