Mar 6, 2013 9:10 AM

A group of local businessmen pitched a plan to the Southampton Town Board this week for the construction of an indoor ice skating rink on the property of the Southampton Youth Services athletic facility in North Sea.

The idea was presented to the board at a work session last Thursday, February 28, by SYS Director Scott Johnson, members of the SYS Board of Directors and businessman Fred Gradin, one of those backing the proposal.

Plans for the facility are still in very preliminary stages, but call for a new building on the SYS property containing only the ice rink, on land owned by the town. Mr. Johnson said the rink would be open year-round and would be available for a wide range of activities, from hockey to figure skating to rentals for private parties.

Mr. Johnson said that SYS has been considering an ice rink for more than two years, since the idea was first proposed by another business group. But costs and operating complications have only recently led them to a proposal they found workable.

“We just want to get the pulse of the board, see if you feel it is right for the community,” Mr. Johnson said. “We’ve talked to more people that want to be on ice than anything else we’ve heard. We want this to be a complete recreational facility for the entire town of Southampton.”

Mark Antilety, the president of the SYS board, said that while it is early in the planning, the numerous efforts to build an ice rink in the past have contributed a significant amount of logistical information.

The youth organization had recently approached the Southampton School District about possibly constructing the ice rink on a 9-acre property the district owns adjacent to the SYS property. The district was unwilling to sell the property though, preferring to lease it in 10-year increments, which is too short of a time to base fundraising on, Mr. Johnson told the board. The town-owned property is also more suited to the facility because it is flat and could take advantage of existing parking on the property.

Board members offered their nod of endorsement to the idea—Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst attended the meeting in a hockey jersey as a show of support. The SYS team said it would likely be months before a full workup of the feasibility of developing and operating such a facility could be completed.

Speaking for “those of us that spent years shuttling kids to Hauppauge at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning,” Ms. Throne-Holst said having a hockey rink locally would be an enormous convenience. “It’s not only hockey,” she added. “It’s figure skating, its birthday parties, it’s summer camps.”

Mr. Antilety said that the ice rink would be entirely operated by SYS—unlike the programs at the main facility, which are run by Future Stars—overseen by Mr. Johnson at first and, eventually, by a dedicated director of its own.