The long-awaited reopening of the Steriti Rink in the North End added to the upcoming hockey season spirit Wednesday, when an assortment of local government officials including Senate President Robert Travaglini (D-Boston) and former Bruins players gathered to celebrate the rink’s reopening.
The rink offered free-skate time to the public Wednesday until 5:00 p.m. Various state officials gave brief speeches on the significant role the rink will play in the Boston community, after which area youth figure skaters performed on the renovated rink.
The $5 million project dragged on for seven years. The rink was originally built in 1975 and was used often for Bruins practices. Two decades later it was closed because of the building’s ‘dilapidated condition,’ according to a Statehouse press release.
The state now owns the rink and the Department of Conservation and Recreation maintains it. Funding was appropriated to renovate the run-down rink in 1996, but various bureaucratic difficulties kept the project from getting off the ground until 2001.
‘Almost everything you see here is new,’ said Felix Browne of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Affairs. ‘The windows, the roof, there’s a new slab, all new refrigeration and two new bocci courts.’ The building’s framework is essentially the only remaining element to the renovated rink.
The rink will be open to the public for skating, as well as for youth ice hockey and figure skating league practices.
Despite the overall agreement on the aesthetic beauty of the rink, which is lined with windows overlooking the waterfront, there were still some conflicts in the reconstruction process.
Former Bruins defenseman Gary Doak, also representing the DCR, said the project took a little longer than planned because of problems with the ground soil and engineering, as well as with funding.
‘It’s a beautiful facility, but it’s just a nightmare to park,’ said Joe Desantis, director of the Revere Youth Hockey League, which will practice at the new rink. The rink closest to Revere was closed because the roof construction was not sound.
‘We had nowhere else to go,’ said Anthony Selvitelle, the league’s president.
Selvitelle said the league has lost about 25 children because of the location of the new rink, and he predicted they will lose more to parking difficulties. The state promised the league a nearby tennis court for parking, but withdrew on that offer in August. The league is looking into shuttle services and putting the tennis court offer back on the table.
‘We’re trying to keep everything on the positive, but we’re running out of positive options,’ said Selvitelle.
State Rep. Salvatore DiMasi (D-Boston) publicly thanked Travaglini for his efforts in restoring the rink. DiMasi also emphasized the extensive cooperation between the House and the Senate in the re-opening of the rink.
‘I want the kids to have a better life than we did,’ DiMasi said.
Environmental Affairs Secretary Ellen Herzfelder, who was also a former New England figure skating champion, joined the children for a couple of spins around the rink. She also rededicated the rink to the late Stephan Steriti and presented the family with a flowered wreath. Steriti was the only North End neighborhood boy to die in the Vietnam conflict. The rink was named after him in the 1970s when it first opened.
Another former Bruins player, Rick Middleton, recalled practices the team once had in the rink.
‘The sunshine used to get in the goalies’ eyes and annoy them,’ he said. He also said it was important to restore this particular rink because there is so little available ice.
‘Having an existing rink that is out of commission is kind of sacrilege,’ he said.
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