Thursday, January 29, 2015

Ice Skating in Hudson

Ice skating on Oakland Lake (and Underhill Pond a hundred years ago) has been a grand tradition in Hudson. This year, although it's certainly been cold enough for the lake to be solidly frozen over, the ice has not been cleared of snow and no flag has gone up to signal that it's safe to skate.

Last night, at the Common Council Public Works Committee meeting, DPW superintendent Rob Perry shared the back story of why there is no skating on the lake this year. 

It seems that a representative of the City's insurer was visiting the mayor's office, where the mayor has displayed on the wall a picture of people skating on Oakdale Lake. The insurance guy commented about the good old days when people skated on frozen water bodies. The mayor told him that the picture had been taken just last winter, occasioning the insurance guy to inform the mayor that the City's liability insurance would not cover ice skating on open water.

To compensate, the Department of Public Works is at work creating an ice rink at Oakdale. Progress has been stalled awaiting delivery of a white tarp to be placed under the ice (the asphalt absorbs heat from the sun and melts the ice) and weather that will free up DPW workers from snow plowing duties so work on the rink can proceed.

Photo: Rob Perry
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

3 comments:

  1. While I can appreciate "insurance issues" it just strikes me as amazingly wasteful to have to spend money when skating for (nearly) free is available on the pond. Our overly litigious society makes me sad.

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  2. Rumor has it that CMH has adopted the City of Hudson's unique method of limiting liability to zero. To reduce the hospital's mortality rate, they have decided to close...Problem solved.

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  3. "a white tarp to be placed under the ice (the asphalt absorbs heat from the sun and melts the ice) and weather that will free up DPW workers from snow plowing duties so work on the rink can proceed."

    Wouldn't a better place for a man made rink be down at Charles William's field? It's unused in winter, has room for parking, lights and plenty of running water for flooding..

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