Westfield Rink Honored For 'Innovation'

WESTFIELD, NJ - Despite its controversial nature in town and nearby, the Westfield Rink has been singled out as an innovative project by a state-wide organization.

The New Jersey State League of Municipalities has chosen the the Town of Westfield as the winner of the 2019 Innovation in Governance Award. The award highlights successful innovative efforts by a municipality or by partnerships including a municipality.

This award recognizes The Westfield Rink as an example of a public/private partnership converting an underutilized town asset into one with community benefit, paid for by a private operator. Last winter the Gumbert Rink began operations and drew its share of criticism over parking, noise and aesthetics.

In June, when the governing body voted to accept the Recreation Commission's recommendation to authorize the Town to negotiate a contract for a two-year renewal of the ice rink, it came with promises to address those issues.

The vote at that time was 6-3 and at the time, Mayor Shelley Brindle asserted that the rink belonged in Westfield and council members Mark LoGrippo, Frank Arena, Linda Habgood, Dawn Mackey and David Contract agreed with her.

"The ice rink turned an underutilized asset into a recreational facility used by 22,000 people including about half from Westfield, offering additional and more convenient ice time for local hockey teams, allowed the creation of an additional Westfield girls high school hockey team and led to tremendous community engagement," Contract said in his summary of the rink's positives.

Council members Doug Stokes, Michael Dardia and JoAnn Neylan voted against the Ice Rink Resolution. Dardia said that he took exception to the notion that a decision that benefits the majority is right for the community, if it comes at the expense of others.

Contract also noted the other concerns expressed about the rink renewal.

"The ice rink had a major negative impact on the immediate neighborhood including noise issues, aesthetic concerns, extra traffic, parking that overflowed on local streets, idling busses, and impact on Garwood businesses," Contract said.

The owner of Union Sports Arena Ken Anderson shared a detailed plan to mitigate those concerns after providing a recap of the first season.

Contract said the revised ice rink proposal was presented the meeting took major steps to mitigate the negative impacts.

"Including using sound barriers to block noise, adding netting around the goals to block pucks during shooting practice, replacing trailers with sheds, changing the schedule to remove hockey practices in several early morning and evening time slots and maintaining procedures that helped improve parking/traffic issues last year," he said.

Although he voted for the resolution, Contract did note there is further work to be done.

"My expectation is that the Mayor will continue to negotiate additional steps to reduce these issues in the final lease, including creating a neighborhood council to work with Mr. Anderson on the final aesthetics," he said.

Brindle will accept the award on Nov. 20 at the League of Municipalities annual conference.

Thanks for reading! Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Have a news tip you'd like to share? Or maybe you have a press release you would like to submit or a correction you'd like to request? Send an email to russ.crespolini@patch.com

Subscribe to your local Patch newsletter. You can also have them delivered to your phone screen by downloading, or by visiting the Google Play store.