10/15/2008 12:07:00 PM Community to celebrate sports arena Grand Opening Saturday gathering will be the culmination of a four-year effort to bring the Oregon area its own indoor skating facility
The folks who've brought you the Oregon Community Sports Arena (OCSA) are celebrating with a Grand Opening Saturday, and Oregon-area residents are invited to the free event.
The village's first indoor ice skating facility, which is the new home of Oregon Youth Hockey, Oregon High School Hockey and the Oregon Skating School, will also house the high school's new alternative school program, OASIS (Oregon Alternative School and Integrated Studies).
On Monday, OHS hockey head coach Tony Renlund said having the school component in the facility "is just a great way to tie it into the greater community."
He called the 42,000-square-foot facility, which includes an ice rink, a 3,000-foot community room, a pro shop, concession stand, locker rooms, arcade area and lobby, "just outstanding."
"We've been working really hard on this for the past four years, so it's been a real excellent example of being patient and being persistent," Renlund said. "I just got off the ice tonight. Youth hockey is rolling and our high school kids have their open-ice workouts, and it's great.
"It's far exceeded my expectations."
The high school hockey team (regional champs last year) will kick off its season Friday, Nov. 28 against Chippewa Falls.
More than hockey
But the sports arena will be much more than a place to play hockey.
Jean Calzavara-Uhlmann will be running her new Oregon Skating School there, and the speed skating club from Madison will also be regular users of ice time. The Southern Wisconsin Figure Skating Club will be the second largest purchaser of ice time, Calzavara-Uhlmann said. The rink will also be open four hours per week to public skating.
Between figure skating, speed skating, lessons, hockey and casual skating opportunities for the public, the facility's "going to have a draw to the whole community," Calzavara-Uhlmann said. "We'll have all skating disciplines available here in Oregon."
She's launching the Oregon Skating School next week, after Saturday's Grand Opening, and is also offering free skating lessons from 1-2 p.m. Saturday. Calzavara-Uhlmann has played the role of skating parent, coach, instructor and competitive skater, "so I have a perspective from all sides," she said.
"Being an adult skater myself, I want to encourage the adult community to come out and learn to skate. One of the things that skating offers adults is the opportunity to work on our balance, because as we age that's one of the things that we really lose. It's really important. Skating is also a weight-bearing exercise and so it helps with our bone density. It is a great activity for adults, and it's also something that families can do together."
Both Renlund and Calzavara-Uhlmann say the OCSA facility will be one of the best places to skate in Dane County. Rink manger Larry Clemens agreed: "The new facility is great, one of the top rinks in the Madison area for sure. With the new compressors, they got the top of the line, so the ice is going to be really good."
"One wouldn't think that indoor ice could be different from rink to rink, but it is," Calzavara-Uhlmann explained. "This facility, having been built for year-round use, has a very efficient dehumidification and cooling system. So this rink will actually feel warmer than a lot of other area rinks because the cooling of it is more efficient."
She compared it to the ice rink at Wisconsin Dells, which was built and operated as a winter rink only until a couple of years ago, when its operators upgraded the mechanicals to be year-round.
"They have to have it so cold in there to handle the humidity that it feels very, very cold," she said. "And so the ice then feels different. Some ice is soft and some ice is hard. There' a balance in managing the energy that goes into keeping the ice frozen and keeping the skaters happy. It's quite difficult; it's not like putting the hose out."
A sketch of the history
The Oregon Community Sports Arena was built on about six acres south of the Oregon High School on land that was donated to OCSA Inc. in 2005, when the Village Board recognized the public benefit to having the facility.
But working out the financing for the nonprofit facility and winning the approval of village officials was far from easy. Organizers initially planned to build not much more than an ice sheet, but the plan grew to include a two-story, $5.2 million sports arena with basketball courts, a viewing deck and space for retail and nonprofit businesses.
Concerns about the scale and cost of the project, as well as a complicated financing scheme, prompted officials to balk at the proposal in June 2007. The OCSA board then went to work to scale back its proposal, and lost several members along the way. Last fall a new group of volunteers joined with some who'd stuck with the project since the beginning and returned to the Village Board in November with a plan that was ultimately approved.
It called for a one-story building and abandoned plans for private retail space, as well as the basketball courts. But the plan retained the National Hockey League regulation-size ice rink and the community room, which was named in honor of Oregon native Angela Drake, who tragically lost her life in December 2005.
In January, the Village Board offered to sell several of its rights in a site agreement for $40,000. The OCSA board accepted the offer, and in March village officials gave final approval for the project. Construction began in April, and there's a big push this week to complete the final touches, such as installing tile flooring and carpet in the lobby.
Keeping the ice cold and the bills paid
OCSA board president Jeff Groenier, the architect who donated his expertise in designing the facility and led the group through the village's approval process, said while construction is nearly complete, fundraising to keep the facility operating will be ongoing.
"We need to generate about $350,000 annually in revenue to break even," he said.
That figure includes all operational and debt payment costs, Groenier said, including the salary for the rink manager, an estimated $10,000 monthly utility bill, as well as loan payments and maintenance costs. The annual mortgage payment is in the neighborhood of $170,000, although the OCSA is not required to make any mortgage payments during its first year of operation.
Groenier said some income will be generated, like renting the community room to public and private events, but fundraising is "a way of life" for community ice skating facilities.
"Anything we generate takes that $350,000 number down," he said. "The school is $30,000 a year. That helps a lot. We'll have a pro shop running in there offering ice skate sharpening, sticks and pads and stuff like that. The rent for him is minimal, just like the concessions is minimal, because we want people to be in there."
He said the facility has been appraised at roughly $4.2 million and it cost approximately $2.5 million to build.
"Our appraiser appraised the building at $4.2 million with the land, and we're going to have just about $2.5 million into it. So that means somehow along the way we came up with $1.7 million for in-kind services," Groenier said. "We have $100,000 in village fees and permits; we paid $40,000 for the land, and then another $30K for the building permit, and then all the legal fees and paying for the engineers to look over the documents."
He said the list of people and companies that have contributed to the project is too lengthy to name without forgetting someone. But he said general contractor Ed Hefty, in particular, needs to be thanked for donating time and labor to the effort.
Groenier said despite the costs and nearly four years of wrangling to get the OCSA proposal approved and built, it was all worth the effort. The goal has always been to create a facility that Oregon could be proud of and that could serve the community, along with drawing thousands of state and out-of-state residents to the village each year.
But the OCSA board will not rest on its laurels, he said.
"The big thing is this is the start, and we really want this to grow and continue into the next phase," he continued. "We would like to be successful enough to build on a second rink or a basketball court. If we're going to bring in big-name teams and tournaments, we're gonna need a hotel in town. And if there's going to be a hotel, they're gonna need us.
"This is nothing but a win-win for everybody. There's no downside for the community. I think when people walk in there Saturday for the first time, people are going to be amazed. We had a concession guy in there today (Monday) and he said this is by far the nicest ice rink I've been in.
"This goes way beyond hockey," he added. "We wanted something nice enough to bring people into this community and think this is someplace I'd want to move to or someplace I'd like to come back to. It benefits everybody in the village to have a facility like this."
Larry Clemens, rink manager
I worked down in Albuquerque, New Mexico, doing some of the ice stuff. That's where I first learned about it. I worked in a rink in Montana, and I did the ice a little bit at the center in Stoughton when I was a coach for the Whitewater girls team. The first time I stared doing ice was in '97, so I've been around rinks for 11 years.
This is my first actual job as a rink manager.
It's what I do. I'm always in a rink for some reason, so i decided I ought to manage one.
I grew up playing hockey in Sun Prairie. I played through my senior year of high school; we won the state championship my senior year. Then I went on to junior hockey and played at New Mexico, and it's where I started working at rinks. Then I played in Sioux City and then in Helena, Montana, and worked in rinks pretty much all the way through.
I've coached since '97; I've been coaching two or three teams a year for the past five years. I do stuff with Team Wisconsin and I'm gonna be the goalie coach for Oregon this year.
This new rink is going to be really fun place of the kids of Oregon.
