All Members of SYH:

The Town Meeting will wrap up on Thursday evening, May 8 (tomorrow). It starts at 7:30 PM and should be done no later than 9:00 PM. I know everyone has busy lives and hates going to Town Meeting, but it is imperative that all members attend or you risk losing the use of Stoneham Arena as we know it.

There are three articles SYH members need to be aware of:

Article 19: Authorizes the town to use some of the receipts generated by the arena to pay for some of the costs of maintaining and repairing the Arena. This revolving fund already is in place but it needs town approval each year. The Finance Board is against this. They would rather take all the money the arena makes and provide for things other than the rink. This is ridiculous. The Arena pays for itself. It costs the Town nothing to run. This account would just allow for a portion of the money the arena makes for the town to go back towards maintaining the Arena so it stays in top shape.

Article 27: Authorizes the Town to appropriate $155,000.00 to repair/replace the rink boards and glass. As I stated earlier, the Arena has netted much more than $155,000.00 the past several years, so this article merely authorizes the Town to repair/replace the boards and glass which are 34 years old. The Arena is a gem, but it needs to be maintained or it will become a relic.

Warrant under the Special Town Meeting to Lease out the Arena to a Third Party

This is the most important article. This article will be heard immediately at the end of regular town meeting which should wrap up about 8:45 PM.

This article is potentially disastrous to SYH. It authorizes the Town Manager, in his sole discretion, to lease out the rink to a third party without any provisions of ice cost or ice time for SYH users or the figure skaters for up to ten years!! If this article passes, and it will if most SYH users do not show up Thursday evening, then we are looking at significant increase in ice cost and loss of peak ice hours. Now the Selectmen tried to sneak this by us in their meeting and when confronted after their vote they agreed to postpone this article to a future town meeting. Just because the Selectmen agree to postpone does not mean the Article will be postponed, it may very well be passed. Although a NO vote on this article is preferable, an IP (indefinite postponement) is better than a YES. The Finance Board (who appear to be VERY anti hockey and anti sports in general) will vote favorable on this! article. If their position prevails, you all better start searching for select ! teams for your kids as SYH as we know it will be changed forever. The ice bill for each kid will be over $2,500.00 per year, not counting second leagues and tournaments.

The bottom line on all the aforementioned articles is this:

The rink is owned by the taxpayers of Stoneham;

SYH (all Stoneham taxpayers) is the biggest user of the rink;

The rink costs the Town NOTHING, an in fact makes money for the Town;

Articles 19 and 27 are merely asking the Town to reinvest a portion of the rink profits back into the rink.

A Vote No on the Warrant Article to Lease the rink will preserve our ice times and limit the cost increases to SYH.


PLEASE ATTEND THIS THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 8, AT 7:30 PM AT TOWN HALL.

MAKE YOUR VOICE BE HEARD