Arena ideas on agenda tomorrow

By Jason Alley, The News-Herald

PUBLISHED: March 27, 2005 LINCOLN PARK — City officials will hear ideas tomorrow on how to increase the profitability of the community center, which costs about $250,000 a year to operate.

The most controversial plan being considered is hiring an outside firm to run the center, best known for its ice rink and outdoor pool.

After discussing several options for months, members of the Parks and Recreation Commission will give a final recommendation to the mayor and City Council at a special meeting at 7 p.m. tomorrow at City Hall.

"We need to get the costs down on what it's costing the city on a yearly basis, but I don't think those costs are going to completely go away," said Councilman Michael Higgins, who serves as the council's liaison on parks and recreation issues.

"No public ice arena makes money. It's a matter of lifestyle and how much we're willing to pay to give our residents what they want."

Parks and Recreation Director Donald Cook runs the center as well as all recreation activities. Higgins said that needs to change.

"The commission is under the belief that one person can't run the entire Parks and Recreation Department and the community center at the same time," Higgins said. "That's too much to ask."

The recommendation will be to bring an outside firm in to run the community center or hire another full-time person or possibly part-time staff to oversee operations, he said.

Ideas being considered include:

•Outsourcing the food concession area to an eatery, such as Tubby's Submarines.

•Renting the ice during all down time to the Detroit Trackers AAA Hockey Club. The travel league proposed renting out the entire facility all of the time, but that idea was quickly dismissed because it would have meant canceling several city functions.

•Offering summer ice for rental, which is rare Downriver. Most single-rink arenas, such as Lincoln Park's, bring up the ice during the summer and rent the building out for festivals and other special events.

•Raising the center's hourly ice rental rate to make it competitive with neighboring arenas. Lincoln Park currently charges $130 an hour, while Melvindale charges between $180 and $215, depending on the time of the year.

"If you go too high, no one is going to come," Higgins said. "If you go too low, you can't make enough to balance the books. You have to be competitive and we need to work more toward doing just that." Tomorrow's meeting will be broadcast live on the city's two government access TV stations — Channel 12 on Comcast and Channel 10 on WOW!

Contact Staff Writer Jason Alley at or at 1-734-246-0867.

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Is the city making any decisions tomorrow night? I'd like to see the ideas brought to the table so the PEOPLE can take notes on them and have time to digest and consider these things because they will be affecting the livelyhood of all Lincoln Parkers. I would also like an opportunity for the people to mull over these ideas, and hope that the council would be so humble as to take the citizens findings into consideration before making a vote. Citizens will not be able to hop up with thier take on all of this information that night, and I would think that the city council would not be able to make a truly informed decision after talking about all the options for one hour.

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Didn't they just send someone to training regarding Food Service Management? You would think they would have held off on this until the outsourcing issue was resolved

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The course they are referring to may be "Serv-Safe", a program to ensure that safe food handling procedures are followed. Any location that serves food is required to have at least one person certified.

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I don't think the Council will make a decision on the 28th, but they will review the findings. A representative from each interested organization should get up there and speak and possibly carry it over to citizens communication. The more the merrier to be sure!

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I agree RMV. If anyone has questions or concerns, they should be in attendance to make sure those concerns are addressed.

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What kind of ideas for an eatery are there? Who likes Olga's? I always wished there was an olga's nearby besides the malls.

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both Ihart and Polish are right .
the council will not decide anything but will hear what the park and recreation commisons recommedations.
They have worked hard on this and I thank them.
The city must have some one who has taken that class to be able to serve food.

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IHeartLP (03-28-05)