End of hockey at CongdonPark?
March 2, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
Congdon Park rink supporters are torn on the meaning of this week’s Duluth School Board decision to approve a school site plan that reduces rink space, with some seeing it as an end to the long-time hockey program housed there and others not ready to give up.
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End of Congdon Park? You will have two rinks! What kind of warming shack is needed…$300,000 to 500,000? Reuse your boards and take the shack down piece by piece and rebuild it! Plant grass and move on. Congdon residents should be happy, the rest of the city didn’t get any compromise.
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What’s sad about this discussion and the views of the hockey association is that it doesn’t seem to take into account the needs of the kids who attend Congdon day in and day out.
And to be really honest, the ice rinks don’t help those kids that much. Go by Congdon at lunch time in the winter and what do you see? A lot of kids penned into a very small playground area, and a huge sheet of ice that is absolutely empty. The kids don’t skate during lunch because there isn’t time. And they don’t have much space to play because the ice is there. Stop by sometime in late March or April or even May and you’ll find a swamp. Again, no playing space for the kids. In the summer you’ll find some weeds, rocks and maybe mud still, again, because the ice rinks have really destroyed the playing field.
The fact is the kids that attend Congdon are going to be better off with a simple old fashioned green space area that doesn’t cost a lot of money. They will have more playing space during more of the year, and that’s better. It leads to more exercise which leads to better health and less tension of frustration during the day.
The hockey folks not only want to spend a lot of money, they want to make the outdoor area at Congdon largely unusable during much of the school year when the ice is there, and then leave behind a really awful collection of weeds, rocks and mud.
So, yes, it’s time for the hockey association to find a new home, and let it be one where they aren’t negatively impacting activities during the rest of the year. Even with a parking lot on site, if the ice rinks aren’t there the kids are going to end up with more usable playing space during the school day, and that’s not only good, it’s the right thing to happen here.
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More calories are burned in that space right now than any other place in Duluth
I bet there’s more calories burned at the YMCA
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I stand corrected. No outdoor place in Duluth burns more calories per acre or taxpayer doller…..and at no charge or monthly dues to use an indoor machine! Fresh air at no extra charge, no locker fee, no towel fee either.
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Did you get bullied by hockey players when you were a kid or what? These people were minding their own business, paying their own way, providing a wonderful and well used resource for the neighborhood kids, and got bulldozed by the school board.
This isn’t the school versus hockey rinks. It’s the hockey rinks verses a big asphalt parking lot.
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You got it!
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Just put up a trailer- many places do that- in fact go buy a FEMA trailer- they sit by the thousands in empty fields in the south and can be purchased really really cheap.
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Since when is money any problem, remember this is the Red Plan and Johnson Controls gets a percentage. Surely they could have come up with a plan with multiple rinks and a retractable dome and of course, no vote required. I think they are getting cold feet. We better report them to their executives, they are just plain worn out, and steeling money is hard work.
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So why is this the end of Congdon hockey? Kids who lost their rinks like Lester Park still play. If you have to play some games over at Portman or Chester, you would not play? Hockey parents drive all over the state to bring their kids to tournaments! You can drive to Eden Praire but you can’t drive them to Lakeside? Numbers are dwindling due to the enormous cost of the sport and if you are in the 20-25 elite who will go on to play college you will fight to the death to keep 3 rinks. 1 in 10,000 go on to play pro sports but everyone goes on in life to work a job. Education over one hockey rink anyday.
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Why can’t you move the program to Lower Chester, it’s in the Congdon Boundry? It needs one more little rink, which can be brought over from Congdon, it has a bigger warming house and a building to house the Zambomi. This DOES NOT need to be the end of Congdon!!!!
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it allows for handicap accessibility and a parent drop-off space for the adjacent school,
It is asinine to bring up handicapped access into this discussion. Handicapped access does not threaten the rinks.
IT IS THE PARKING LOT STUPID!
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David Anderson, a new parking lot is needed at Congdon. They have over 50 staff, parents, volunteers from the community, and student teachers. A 61 space parking lot is needed. People now clog up the road behind the school and staff who come in the pm, park 2 blocks away and carry materials a long way. If you are updating a building it only makes sense to increase as inadequate space for safety reasons.Drop offs and adequate space for special ed buses are needed for Congdon’s growing autism population. Did we not build a parking ramp when the Amsoil was built?
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Congdon school has been educating children well for 80 years without a huge parking lot. It was a School of Excellence a few years ago and it didn’t have a huge parking lot. Children can get an excellent education without a huge parking lot outside their class room.
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The mission of the Duluth School District is to educate it’s students. As taxpayers, we expect the school district to be good stewards of our money, and to make sure that it is used in the most efficient way possible to carry out the mission of the School District.
I truly feel for the people who care greatly about these rinks. Yes, it is a shame that this is happening, but this is school property, and our taxpayer dollars are to support a school, necessary green space and adequate parking. 3 hockey rinks on a small school site has been a luxury that this group has enjoyed for a long time, but it is incredibly foolish to expect added tax dollars to be used to keep this.
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It is a choice between a healthy place for kids to play and learn or a big blacktopped parking lot. Seems like an easy choice to me and I honestly don’t understand the appeal of this parking lot to you guys.
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Duluthian, do you have children who are currently enrolled at Congdon Park Elementary?
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