Youth Hockey Non-Profit Awarded Management of Flynn Rink

A local non-profit formed by board members of Melrose and Winchester's Youth Hockey programs will take over management control of Flynn Memorial Rink in Medford for the next five years, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) confirmed on Wednesday.

Under the management agreement, Friends of the Flynn Rink, Inc. — a non-profit formed in 2006 by board members of Melrose and Winchester's Youth Hockey programs — will take on the responsibility of day-to-day management costs and payroll associated with running the currently state-owned and operated rink, where youth hockey players from both communities play.

Friends of Flynn Rink must annually pay the state 2.5 percent of net revenue earned from managing the rink in the first three years and 5 percent of net revenue earned in the last two years, according to an award letter provided to Melrose Patch by DCR spokeswoman Wendy Fox.

In addition to managing the rink, Friends of Flynn Rink will also be responsible for maintaining all pedestrian areas between the rink and the parking lot, including snow and ice removal from sidewalks and removing litter.

The DCR would maintain responsibility for rink maintenance — including the bed beneath the ice surface and the rink's ice-making system — capital improvements and for plowing snow from the parking lot.

DCR ice rinks leased to outside management must operate under the same guidelines as state-operated rinks, according to DCR policy, including the number of public skating hours that must be offered — at least 16 hours a week of public skating, 20 hours during public school vacation weeks, as well as additional hours for youth groups and school hockey — mandated prices for rink time, minimum maintenance and capital expenditures, and insurance requirements.

Friends of Flynn Rink President Tom Troiano, a Winchester resident, and John McLaughlin, a Melrose resident and Park Commission member who helped start the non-profit, could not be immediately reached for comment.

The DCR began soliciting proposals in January for management of Flynn Rink and four other state-owned and operated rinks in Greater Boston, a continuation of an outsourcing program that began in 2002. The program provides relief for the DCR's budget, which is 20 percent less than it was at the start of fiscal 2009. Of the 43 DCR-owned skating rinks across the state, one is managed by a non-profit — soon to be two with the Flynn Rink agreement — another 19 rinks are managed by professional management companies and nine are managed by municipalities.

It's not the first time Friends of Flynn Rink mulled making a proposal to the state to take over management control of Flynn Rink. The non-profit actually formed four years ago when board members of Melrose and Winchester's Youth Hockey programs feared that management of Flynn Rink would be outsourced to a private company and that, as a result, the private company's bottom line would have take precedent over making the rink accessible to youth hockey players.  Flynn Rink's management was ultimately not outsourced that year.