The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
‘FOND MEMORIES’
Residents remember ice skating in Oneida in decades past
ONEIDA, N.Y. » As the winter drags on and COVID remains a prominent threat, many Oneida residents have found themselves looking fondly to the past when ice skating at Veterans Memorial Playfield was once a main and common attraction in Oneida, particularly for locals passing the wintertime.
Millennials and younger generations may be none the wiser to the ice-skating roots of Oneida’s history. Up until the late 80s, the activity was a staple in the community since at least the 1940s, according to the Dispatch’s research of Oneida ice skating reports.
Winters were longer and colder, activities were fewer and farther between, and ice skating filled a void residents didn’t even know could exist. Older generations can remember routinely skating with friends after school, playing hockey, and maybe even working at the rink to make some extra cash.
One such long-time resident, Joseph Magliocca, did use to work at the rink as a teenager, he said. He’s lived down the street from Vets Field his whole life. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, ice skating there and sledding down “P&C hill” was “just what you did in the winter when you were a kid on the North side,” he remarked. Today, he serves as a Madison County supervisor representing Oneida.
One of the first reported upsets to the city’s longheld icy tradition started in 1988 with the ice rink being cut from the city’s 1989 budget by the Common Council, according to newspaper clippings stored in the Oneida Recreation Center. The Dispatch re
“The location that we’ve historically had [the rink] at Vets just doesn’t work with these shorter, warmer winters that we have. We just don’t have the sustained cold weather that we did decades ago.” — Attribution goes right here in this space just like this
ported on Jan. 1, 1988, “It’s the first time in decades that the city is without a rink.”
Then-mayor Army Carinci said the rink was scrapped because it was difficult to maintain, and, due to the unreliable weather, was not becoming worth the fuss. He said it was only open for 13 days the winter prior “because the ice kept melting.”
Some officials disagreed with the decision, and some residents were also up in arms to defend their beloved rink, which was a resource in the community that was always free, available, and a reliable source of fun. The city provided the rink; the residents handled their own skates.
Youth Bureau Director Kevin Davies explained in the 80s article that creating an ice rink was traditionally done by banking up snow and flooding the area with cold water.
Magliocca recalled days when there were two fields; one for hockey, one for public skating. Sometimes one rink would intermittently be used for both. The rinks were almost always on the Vets Field parking lot, but they may have occasionally been directly on the field, too, he recalled.
According to an old Oneida Dispatch report, in 1980, the grading at the Vets Field lot was reversed, creating more concaving than there was before. This was great for storm drainage, but bad for ice-rink logistics, Magliocca explained. The deeper bowl meant the ice needed to be deeper, too, which was not good when long-lasting freezing temperatures were getting more and more scarce.
In the past, skaters could be seen 30 days or more on the ice, officials said. That number has reportedly been in constant decline.
“The location that we’ve historically had [the rink] at Vets just doesn’t work with these shorter, warmer winters that we have,” Magliocca recently told the Dispatch. “We just don’t have the sustained cold weather that we did decades ago.” Using a refrigeration system may be the most practical way to get a rink up and running again these days, he said.
The ice rink was ultimately reopened for a brief period in 1989 after around two dozen resident-skaters were persistent. According to the newspaper reports, the price tag of the rink was around $4,300; this is what the council had scrapped from the budget. With no funding source, the money was to be taken out of the youth bureau’s seasonal account until a new decision was made. City officials had opposed the spending in order to prevent tax increases.
The youth bureau director argued that, in the past, $4,300 was allotted for the rink, but not all of it was spent.
In ‘89, someone wrote an opinion piece in the Oneida Dispatch titled “Is ice skating worth the price tag?” The person claimed that on a good day, officials have said 125 people would use the rink. But how many good days were there really, they questioned? Was a small minority, about two dozen area skaters, having too much sway on such a decision?
Magliocca said presently, “Municipal recreation does not pay for itself...municipal recreation is an investment in the community.”
The next ice skating report in Oneida jumps forward to 2001. The rink was 65 by 40 yards in size.
Later, in 2006, ice skating was again a debated topic. City officials approved the spending of around $3,005,000 for a large tarp to line the rink—a last-ditch effort by then-mayor Leo Matzke to try and get ice skating off the ground. He estimated the first-year cost to bring the rink back would be about $10,000, then after that, $5,000.
Ice skating took its final bow later in 2007 after being opened under Matzke for a short period. There have been no known reports of a rink being open in the city since.
Members of the popular Oneida-area Facebook page, “Downtown Oneidait’s time for a change!” recently discussed the days when ice skating in the city was a reality and questioned if it could ever be that way again. Among 110 comments on the topic, users recalled memories, questioned the costs, and offered proposals for the potential future of skating in the area.
“The parks department and the programs that it’s offered has had to kind of change with the times,” Magliocca said. But, if people really want something, he says anything is possible.
“Everybody can do something. Get a passion, do some fundraising, come up with an idea...volunteers do a ton of things in this city. Everything is possible with the right mindset,” he commented, adding “We have a lot of good local civic groups from Rotary, to the Elks, and everything else. You never know.”
Do you have fond memories of Oneida’s past you’d like to share? Whether you have pictures, stories, or something else entirely, contact Reporter Carly Stone at cstone@oneidadispatch. com.