City of Berlin employee Scott Turmel demonstrates the fire hose nozzle attached to a truck used to ice the Memorial Park rink. (PAUL ROBITAILLE PHOTO)

City of Berlin employee Scott Turmel demonstrates the fire hose nozzle and fabricated Zamboni unit he and Jesse Croteau fabricated at the Gilbert St. city garage. (PAUL ROBITAILLE PHOTO)

City of Berlin employee Scott Turmel attaching a fire hose to the nozzle cradle that he fabricated to flood the ice rink at Memorial field. (PAUL ROBITAILLE PHOTO)

City of Berlin employee Scott Turmel demonstrates the fire hose nozzle attached to a truck used to ice the Memorial Park rink. (PAUL ROBITAILLE PHOTO)

City of Berlin employee Scott Turmel demonstrates the fire hose nozzle and fabricated Zamboni unit he and Jesse Croteau fabricated at the Gilbert St. city garage. (PAUL ROBITAILLE PHOTO)

City of Berlin employee Scott Turmel attaching a fire hose to the nozzle cradle that he fabricated to flood the ice rink at Memorial field. (PAUL ROBITAILLE PHOTO)

COOS COUNTY — Outdoor skating rinks have been part of the local winter culture in the North Country for many years.

Locally, Berlin maintains five outdoor rinks, the largest of which is on Green Street near the recreation center. One is located at Memorial Field, one at Horne Field and another on Hutchins Street near the playground. An additional smaller rink is located on Highland Avenue.

According to Scott Turmel and Jesse Croteau with the City of Berlin, it takes a lot of man hours to care for the ice, keep the rinks shoveled and maintain the surface.

“It used to take three men four hours and lots of fire hoses to flood just one rink, Croteau said. “We have fabricated some equipment that allows one man to do a rink in half the time.”

Croteau then described the water tank and Zamboni equipment they have adapted to a Berlin Public Works pickup truck. They placed a large plastic water tank in the back of the pickup took an old Zamboni pipe that was being thrown away and built a harness that can attach to the back of the pickup for the water pipe and then drive around the rink to flood it to maintain the ice surface.

Turmel also showed off a fabricated stand they built with a fire hose connection on it that they can connect to a fire hydrant with a fire hose.

“Using this we can reach the entire rink and one man can do it now instead of three,” Turmel said. “The Green St. rink is the one most used but the other neighborhood rinks also get used often. Though not a lot of people seem to know about the Highland Ave. Park and rink.”

The town of Gorham maintains one rink at the Libby Park complex. 

Gorham Recreation Director Jeff Stewart said the original boards for the rink were a Gorham High School senior project by Kyle Boiselle, and the warming hut was another senior project put together by Tony Bolash. 

“Toby Reichart from the Mt. Washington Auto Road volunteered to gravel the ice rink surface and to asphalt it.” Stewart said.  “But we ran out of time to asphalt this year, as the asphalt plant closed for the season before we could get to it. Hopefully we can get to it in the spring and when we do, we will paint it white, to keep the surface cool from the sun’s rays.”

Stewart and Fred Corrigan, of Gorham Public Works snow blow the rink and water the ice, Stewart said.

“We used to drain Libby pool but now we leave it half full so we have water to flood the rink,” Stewart said. “Fred uses an ice auger to cut through the ice and then we use a pump and fire hoses to flood the ice and maintain it. We usually get six to eight weeks of good skating each season but by the end of February the sun is so high in the sky that we can no longer maintain the ice.”

Stewart further said, “I get calls every December about when the rink will be available, but in the eight years we have been doing this, I have only seen one year when it was cold enough to flood the rink in December.” 

The Gorham rink does have some posted hours for use. Open skate (skating only) is Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday 7 a.m.  to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.  Sticks and Pucks Hockey only is Tuesday and Thursday 6p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. 

Stewart said that the Gorham rink also has lights that will come on and shut off automatically, so skating is available after dusk. The rinks are free and are open to use by the public.

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