SNOW HILL – Worcester County will list its synthetic ice rink for sale online following a split vote this week.
On Tuesday, the Worcester County Commissioners voted 4-3 to list the county’s ice rink for sale on govdeals.com.
“I think the taxpayers should recoup some funding for the cost of this ice rink,” Commissioner Chip Bertino said.
At the start of the year, the commissioners agreed to cease operations of the synthetic ice rink, which the county purchased for about $70,000 in 2019. Several of them said it was too expensive to set up and wasn’t utilized enough. At that point, staff advised them they could donate it, sell it on the online auction site govdeals.com or solicit bids for it. They voted 4-3 at the time to solicit bids.
Procurement Officer Nicholas Rice approached the commissioners Tuesday with the news that no bids to purchase had been received. He said he was looking for direction from officials on how to proceed.
As he did earlier in the year, Commissioner Joe Mitrecic advocated for donating the rink to a county entity. When the idea was floated previously about giving the rink away, there was interest among some parties, including the Town of Berlin. On Tuesday, Mitrecic made a motion to have interested parties submit a narrative on how they intended to use the rink and to donate it to the entity with the best planned use. While Commissioner Ted Elder seconded the motion, other commissioners said they disagreed. Bertino said some funding should be sought for the rink rather than give it away. Commissioner Caryn Abbott agreed.
“I believe the taxpayers deserve to recoup as much money as they can from the investment,” she said.
Elder said the rink had proven popular with local children.
“You’ve got the money already invested,” he said. “The best thing you could do with that ice rink is to let the rec and parks continue what they were doing. They just did get started on marketing it and finding out what works.”
Commissioner Diana Purnell indicated she also wanted to keep the rink and let local children continue to enjoy it.
“At least if we give it to someone in the county, the county taxpayers still get to reap the benefits of having it,” Mitrecic said.
After his comments suggesting the county’s recreation and parks department keep the rink, Elder rescinded his second to Mitrecic’s motion, which subsequently died. A motion by Commissioner Eric Fiori to list the rink on govdeals.com passed 4-3, with Elder, Purnell and Mitrecic opposed.
