By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer

mammoth times photo/catherine bille Local hockey enthusiasts Jason Marx and Adam Klimek enjoy one last session at the Mammoth Lakes ice rink Friday morning, March 5. “We’re it,” Marx said. The rink closed that night.

Though it doesn’t have a roof and no idea when that might occur, the Mammoth Lakes community ice rink nonetheless enjoyed an increase of 2,500 skaters this season over last year.
According to Danna Stroud, director of Tourism and Recreation, a total of  8,106 people used the rink,  including families, school groups, hockey enthusiasts, residents and visitors, until it closed on March 5, one week earlier than planned, because of a broken pipe.
Stroud said the operating budget allocated by town council for the 2009-10 season was about $140,000.  “We haven’t done a complete revenue analysis yet to be able to say what our revenue was versus what our cost was,” she said the day the rink closed.
“Overall, the rink was fun this year,” said Jeff Posey, the local hockey enthusiast who spearheaded volunteer efforts last fall to help get the ice rink up and running by winter. He was joined in that endeavor by locals Allen Blumare, Mike Coco, Jay Ismail, Jim Lynch, Jason Marx, Dane Plock, and John Reilly.
“I used it a lot,” said Lynch, a local tile contractor, who played hockey throughout the season with numerous locals and visitors and also went there with his wife, Joani, and their two children, 3 and 6.
He was encouraged to see two goalies and 15 guys at the rink the evening of Feb. 23. “It was a great turnout because we had subs.” Overall, however, he was disappointed by the absence of a hockey league. “It’s hard to get people organized anymore.”

Rink needs a roof
A roof on the rink could change that. The season could start earlier and last longer. “Everyone knows that,” Lynch said. “It could be 20 degrees out, and if it’s a clear blue day, the high altitude sun is just too intense. The coolers can’t keep the ice that cool. The boards absorb so much heat on the side the sun hits first thing in the morning, and the ice just starts melting.”
Boards are the white hockey boards that go around the perimeter of the ice, according to town civil engineer Peter Bernasconi. And the coolers, (or chillers) chill the cooling fluid, but they can’t keep up with a radiant sun. “So once the sun starts getting higher in the sky, then we would need to add an  additional chiller to keep it open longer – or a roof,” he said.
Town discussions about a roof for the rink, proposed as an open-pole roof so users could still see the mountains,  began in 2006. “A concept they’re looking at is having temporary sliding doors that can be opened and closed to address the wind issue that comes in,” Stroud said.
“Or a wind screen,” Bernasconi added.
“I understand it’s a lot of money. It’s hard to pump money into it when it doesn’t make a lot for the town,” Posey said.
But Bernasconi said the town submitted a request to California State Parks on March 1 for a $4 million grant for a roof that includes photovoltaics, which would help power the chiller. He said the town will likely hear back in 4 to 6 months.
The primary expense in covering the community rink is for the span crossing the rink. “You’re talking huge I-beams,” Posey said.
Bernasconi agreed. “The cover itself is about $1.4 million, and it’s a big building – 27,000 square feet – so it’s expensive, but we’ve designed it. It’s all ready to go.”
He said the town has another grant in the works for $500,000 for the concrete slab. “That will hold the chiller tubing. We need about $800,000, so we need another $400,000. So we’re working on the impossible.”
And Posey is willing to do for a roof on the rink what John Wentworth, as director of MLTPA, has done for trails. “What he’s accomplished blows me away.” Posey, who believes the rink is in good shape, said. “They have a new set of coils that they can put down when they put the concrete down, and the boards were just reskinned.”
Stroud said the town has new tubing that would go down with the concrete pad.
Further discussions about a roof for the ice rink will likely begin when town council begins discussing the 2010-11 budget year in May.

Structural integrity of used rink
The town purchased the rink, some 15 years old, as a used facility  from a broker in Wisconsin who specialized in placing pre-owned ice rinks. While it has been exposed to the elements on a regular basis, the town has tried to keep it as protected as possible.
“When it’s exposed to the elements during the operation of the system, it starts to exhibit wear and tear,” Stroud said, adding that the brittleness of the tubes create leaks and need to be repaired. “Each year there are more leaks in those tubes.”
She also said any rumors to the effect that town government seeks to move the rink are not true. “The town has long-term lease agreements with the landowners,” she said. “There may be opinions from people that it should be in a different location, but staff is going forward to complement on that location.”
Signage to the ice rink and library off Sierra Park Road will be improved as the town’s wayfinding projects proceed, she added.

Operational considerations
Some users expressed disappointment in the way the ice rink was run this season. “I’m trying to stay positive with the town, which means well, but sometimes they overstaff the place,” Coco (one of the volunteers) said.
He cited one night when three people were staffing the rink, but not one knew how to use the ice resurfacing machine and it was suggested he skate for free.
“It’s not about skating for free; I’m happy to give them my money,” Coco said. “It’s about finishing this amenity so it succeeds, and the people that live and visit here can have an ice skating rink that they’ve got two thirds of the way done. Finish it and have it, instead of wallow along like a wounded animal.”
Stroud explained town staff is cross-trained in ice monitoring (looking out for safety issues), inside skate rentals and concessions, bathroom and grounds clean-up, and parking monitoring, but that groomers are the only designated technicians. “It’s very specific as to who is trained to operate the groomer.”
At first, she said she wasn’t aware of any situation where staff on duty couldn’t do the grooming. “Staffing depends on the participation level, which is higher on the weekends,” she said.
On follow-up, she said it did happen as Coco described in January because regular staff had been sent to CPR training, and only a skeleton crew was  at the rink. “So there wasn’t trained staff for grooming the ice for hockey.”

Marketing the rink
Posey has numerous ideas for generating revenue and increasing ice rink use throughout the winter. “I wish it was marketed better, so more people would know about it,” he said. Programs he had in mind, such as full moon and disco nights, figure skating programs, and a youth hockey program didn’t take off this season.
“I don’t understand the whole political process and there’s a lot of hoops to jump through to make things work with the new insurance regulations in California,” he said.
But he intends to familiarize himself  with this process so he can be effective in helping create a better community ice rink in the future.
Stroud said two potential figure skating trainers were lined up early in the season, but for a variety of reasons of their own, they weren’t able to proceed. “And we were also operating under some budget constraints.”
She emphasized the positive aspects of the rink this season: New heaters were installed, new seating areas included benches and picnic tables, and enhanced lighting. “We also  had a new music system out there. With the constraints we were operating under, we had a nice facility for people to enjoy. And we didn’t have any law enforcement issues.”
“The unfortunate thing about an ice rink, unless it’s a top notch state-of-the-art facility with a restaurant, it’s not going to make money,” Lynch said. “But you’ve got to have amenities for kids in this town. An ice rink is a great thing.”
He is impressed by Sierra Nevada Lodge owner James Demetriades’ idea to include an ice rink in his proposed Old Mammoth Place development. “That’s what this community needs,” Lynch said. An ice rink there might not work for hockey because of the noise, but it could work for other uses. Lynch pointed to the miniature golf course Demetriades installed on his hotel property “I’ve lived here 23 years and it’s amazing to see that guy do stuff.”

Parents pressure board
to unanimous decision

By Wendilyn Grasseschi
Mammoth Times Staff Writer

mammoth times photo/wendilyn grasseschi Gabriel Solorio, principal of Mammoth Middle School, has been promoted to Mammoth High School where he will become principal beginning in June.

Middle School Principal Gabriel Solorio will be the new high school principal beginning in June.
The news came a few weeks after parents and community members put pressure on the school board to move Solorio from the middle school, rather than search for a new principal through a competitive open recruitment process.
Solorio is well respected and liked in the community and is widely credited with helping the middle school achieve its current California Distinguished School designation.
The hope is that he could duplicate that success at the high school.
For his part, Solorio, who recently made it clear that he was interested in the position, could not be happier.
“Oh my gosh, here we go,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it. There are going to be some real challenges and I love a good challenge.”
Solorio will come to Mammoth High School in a year that has indeed seen some challenges. The school did not have a varsity football team this year, it has struggled with some subject test score decreases, and parents and students say that morale could be a lot better.
Solorio is aware that the expectations placed on him are high, and he said he intends to meet them.
“If you doubt yourself, if you go into thinking you can’t meet the challenges, you are already in trouble,” he said. “If I didn’t think I could meet them, I wouldn’t be doing this.”
He said his greatest strength is probably his ability to work with students, parents and staff, to develop relationship

By Wendilyn Grasseschi
Mammoth Times Staff Writer

mammoth times photos/wendilyn grasseschi A male sage grouse struts his stuff, looking for females. The Eastern Sierra’s genetically distinct population of sage grouse has been determined to be in more danger of extinction than the Greater sage grouse populations that extend across the Western states. As such, the local grouse populations will be under close scrutiny by the federal government. At the same time, the March 5 decision by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to avoid naming the bird as “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act gives local land managers more time to come up with good plans to protect the grouse, even as it angered environmentalists who believe the grouse should be fully protected.

The Eastern Sierra is home to many strange and wondrous creatures, not least of which is one that few people have ever seen: the sage grouse.
The little brown chicken-sized bird is shy and reclusive and really not much to look at, at least until it starts its breeding strut in late March and into April.
Then the males balloon up into fantastical creatures with huge, inflated, pure white chests and flamboyant black tail feathers extended behind their backs Shy no longer, they strut through their sagebrush habitat, looking for females, making a peculiar sound like a cross between a bird and a frog.
In the Eastside, they hang out in such places as Long valley, the Bodie Hills and the foothills of the northern White Mountains.
Wherever there is sagebrush, there maybe are grouse.
And that’s the problem, according to the National Fish and Wildlife Service. This week the agency moved the local grouse population a bit closer to being protected, stating that the bird’s numbers were dropping fast enough to worry they might go extinct.
Though the grouse didn’t actually get final protection under a powerful, regulatory federal law called the Endangered Species Act, it did put  local agencies and residents on watch that the local grouse population is being watched. Should the bird get listed as endangered under this  law, all activities that might hurt the grouse would not only be monitored by the agency but often prevented.