Skating at the old rink at the Common in the 1970s. The city is hoping to bring skating back to the Common or Clapp Park with a mobile rink.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Philanthropic support has boosted the city's plans to revive long-cherished days of outdoor ice skating.

On Tuesday, Parks, Open Space, and Natural Resources Manager James McGrath told the Parks Commission that the Feigenbaum Foundation boosted the effort by $125,000. He sees this as the kind of facility where people make core memories.

"They're excited about this. They see a real opportunity for this to be one more fun thing that's offered in Pittsfield," he said.

"In the wintertime, a lot of folks around here tend to hibernate, sort of close themselves off. But this is a wonderful place and our parks are wonderful places to continue to make memories, even in the wintertime. So how do we get folks into some of our parks in a four-season kind of way? An ice rink, I think, is the way to do that."

McGrath revealed the effort to buy a 50-foot by 100-foot refrigerated mobile ice skating rink for the parks in October. He hopes to have fully committed funding in the next few weeks to present the project for approval.

The city has raised $175,000 from two philanthropic organizations for the $250,000 effort and is eying Clapp Park as an initial location.  

"I like the idea of Clapp because of the Winter Carnival. I also like the idea of The Common with all the restaurants and the downtown area," Commissioner Cliff Nilan said.

"I mean, those are two good choices."

Pittsfield has a long history of providing outdoor ice rinks at the common and more. McGrath recalled that in the 1950s and the 1960s, there were rinks in other parts of the city like Weller Avenue.

"Of course, we can't do that anymore," he said.

"Most recently, the Parks Department was building a rink at The Common and sometimes it would work well, other times — it was very labor intensive, it was costly on overtime. When the conditions were great, everyone loved it and then it would warm up and we'd have a pool, a small pond at The Common."

The city then started partnering with the Boys & Girls Club of the Berkshires, using grant funding to pay for ice time and skate rentals.

"What we're proposing here is to purchase a small, 50 by 100 (foot) rink that would be able to be set up. Underneath that rink would be a whole refrigeration unit and condensers on the side and all the piping associated with it. We plug this thing into three-phase power and boom, we'd have an outdoor ice rink," McGrath explained.

"… It could be 50 degrees and we could still have an ice rink operational. So this is something we're looking very seriously at."

Clapp Park is being considered for a location because it has parking, water hookups, and a small building. When the winter is over, the portable rink is packed into a couple of containers for storage.

"We would set this just beyond the scoreboard, beyond the outfield of the baseball field, so folks could park, make their way over the rocks, beyond the rocks, and there would be the rink," he explained.

"It could be set up at The Common as well. We're sort of trying to understand what the best location would be."

Ultimately, the intent is to set up the rink at Wahconah Park each winter, but the park is currently facing major renovations.

McGrath added there are a "lot" of other considerations on operations but there are commitments from city tradesmen and the Parks Department for assistance, adding "I think this is an important project that I think a lot of people can get behind."

He noted that some location decisions may be based on available infrastructure and the city is being thoughtful about it.

"We're going to think through all of this and try to understand what the best approach is but I'm excited about this," he said.

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