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 The Hockey Rink

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Bleedgreen
baseball101
mouthpiece
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baseball101
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baseball101


Number of posts : 43
Registration date : 2008-06-07

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PostSubject: Hockey Day in Minnesota: A new ice age   The Hockey Rink - Page 2 Icon_minitimeSun Jan 18, 2009 10:22 am

Hockey Day in Minnesota: A new ice age

Did anyone attend from Ortonville? There was an article in the Minneapolis Tribune that addresses how far behind this community is in attempting to participate in a hockey program. The article says:

"Cory Ellis and several of his St. Paul Johnson hockey teammates grew up experiencing the occasional outdoor practice or game. He could not recall, however, the last time he walked to a rink." Empasis added.

If Ortonvillle wants to pretend to be an progressive community it is time to put their money where their mouth is. Unless the association does not want an indoor arena?

I have attached pictures of the Ortonville Ice Arena and warming house from this last week when the temperatures were below -20.
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hockeymom
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hockeymom


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Registration date : 2008-11-03

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PostSubject: Re: The Hockey Rink   The Hockey Rink - Page 2 Icon_minitimeThu Feb 12, 2009 3:35 pm

Baseball101, did you read the whole article? First of all, it did not say anything about our community. Second of all, if you are going to quote an article give all of the info. Ellis went on to say:

"We thought it was going to be a long, cold walk," Ellis said. "But it pumped us up to play. We walked down the street talking about how we're playing for our community."

The article talked about the heart of playing hockey. Does it really matter if we are indoors or outdoors if the kids playing are playing with heart and enjoying the game? The towns with the big fancy indoor rinks most likely started outdoors, as also mentioned in the article. We are doing what we can to keep hockey going in ortonville. We would love to build an indoor arena, it would definately benifit the community as well as the hockey association. If you have any ideas on how to actually help get an indoor arena and expanding our program instead of telling other readers that our program is dying, your opinion would then be appreciated.
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baseball101
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baseball101


Number of posts : 43
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PostSubject: Why Bother!   The Hockey Rink - Page 2 Icon_minitimeThu Feb 12, 2009 4:25 pm

Why Bother!

A few years ago a group of ambitious entrepreneurs attempted to solicit support for an indoor arena to be built in Big Stone City. This association soundly defeated this proposal. The proponents were scoffed at and chastised, just as they were this fall. The same organization attacked these men this fall again.

I think you have the better idea and I would like to hear your suggestion. Why anyone would want to work with this organization unless there were changes is beyond me. Even the tone of your post is an attempt to prove an outdoor arena is the best solution to the Ortonville hockey.

I think apologies would be the right place to start.
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hockeymom
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PostSubject: Re: The Hockey Rink   The Hockey Rink - Page 2 Icon_minitimeFri Feb 13, 2009 3:34 pm

After some checking, I have not been able to find any documentation for any offers to financially help the hockey association build an indoor hockey rink. There was discussion at one time to aquire a building in Milbank, but from what I understand, it would not have been regulation size. Without a regulation size rink we would not have been able to host games or tournaments and that would have meant little to no income to keep it running. There was also talk of trying to build a rink in Big Stone City, but we couldn't get enough money to build. If anyone has any documentation that states otherwise, the board would like to see it.

If there is anyone still willing to help build an indoor rink, we would love to hear from you. Most board members are pretty easy to get ahold of. If you have questions or concerns, please come to a meeting, but don't just come to observe....say something!

The BSLAHA is doing all that we can do to keep kids in Hockey and to bring in new players. We are doing a demonstration at the Ortonville school next week and its in the works for other schools including Big Stone, Milbank area and CGB. We hand out flyers at all of the area parades, we participate in most town events and we do endless fundraising. We appreciate everyone who is kind enough to purchase from our kids.

How many associations do you know that provide the necessary equipment for kids to play? BSLAHA does. We also keep our registration fees low so that familys can afford it.

Just like any non-profit organization, we volunteers work hard to keep the association going only asking for the support of our community. We are not in it for the politics, we love watching our kids play and our kids love the game, so we want to keep this going. It's not for us, its for the kids.
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Bleedgreen
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Number of posts : 7
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PostSubject: Re: The Hockey Rink   The Hockey Rink - Page 2 Icon_minitimeFri Feb 13, 2009 4:05 pm

Actually getting into any kind of indoor facility, whether regulation or not, would have been a positive. Practice's could have been held at a much closer location than Morris Mn. Parent's do not want to drive that far for practice. (except a select few). When the building in Milbank came up for discussion for practice I believe the exact quote was: "Ortonville parents won't take their kids to Milbank for practice" However a good number of Milbank parents drove their kids to Ortonville and beyond for practice. It is this one way thinking that lands organizations in trouble. As far as a non-regulation rink being non-income producing is hogwash. You start by having Open skating to the public. Skate rentals, facility rentals for parties, advertising on the walls,ice, and zamboni could be great ways to raise funds. First you build the interest in the community, then you go for something bigger. The outdoor rink in Ortonville is very nice, out of the wind and kept up pretty good. But, other than hockey and some open skating what is it used for. How about curling, figure skating club, adult hockey and broomball leagues. All these could be done to generate interest within the communities. To make it work, it must be multi-use.That is the only way any of these facilities make it.
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Lady Hawk
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PostSubject: Documentation on the proposed indoor hockey rink for Big Sto   The Hockey Rink - Page 2 Icon_minitimeMon Feb 23, 2009 11:29 pm

hockeymom wrote:
After some checking, I have not been able to find any documentation for any offers to financially help the hockey association build an indoor hockey rink. There was discussion at one time to aquire a building in Milbank, but from what I understand, it would not have been regulation size. Without a regulation size rink we would not have been able to host games or tournaments and that would have meant little to no income to keep it running. There was also talk of trying to build a rink in Big Stone City, but we couldn't get enough money to build. If anyone has any documentation that states otherwise, the board would like to see it.

Your carefully worded post has been read. Only the hockey board has control over what is in their minutes. It was not difficult, however, to find documentation that there was indeed momentum in putting in an indoor hockey rink. A reasonable person could assume that money was discussed in such context. The following documents are being made availalble in the gallery and the board may look at it at their leisure. There are three Big Stone City Council meetings (2/2/06, 2/6/06, & 4/5/07) two job estimates (they will be in the gallery soon), and a diagram of the proposed indoor hockey rink. I did not include the estimates on the floor mats for the indoor practice rink in Milbank because hockeymom has already acknowleged that event.

Click on the document and use the arrow to view the others. The Hockey Rink - Page 2 Big_st14

Greg Thomas, Scott Mueller, and Ron Frauenshuh discussed the possiliblity of building an indoor hockey rink. Greg Thomas, & Scott Mueller approached the BSLA Hockey Board about building an indoor rink in Big Stone City sometime in the last part of 2005. (Oct - Nov?) You might want to check your records back that far.

According to Greg everyone in the hockey association was enthusiastic and they started a few committees to look into the various aspects to work with Mr. Thomas and the others. On Feb. 2, 2006 members of the hockey association and Board President Trish Kellen attended a meeting with the City Council of Big Stone City to discuss the proposed indoor rink. There was another meeting with the Big Stone City Council on Feb. 6, 2006. The only other meeting minutes that was found on a short cursory review was a year later on April 5, 2007 where Donette Herberg talked about government funding not being availalbe unless community interest was attached. Big Stone City then began talking about attaching city offices or a community center to it and wanted to move in that direction.

Greg Thomas stated that the board was enthusiastic at first and made committees but they fizzled out. According to Mr. Frauenshuh he received a phone call that was referenced in a previous post on this thread. Mr. Thomas said that after Mr. Frauenshuh was asked to leave he had little to no support and it isn't the kind of thing one man can do. Mayor Deb Wiik stated that Big Stone City offered to give them the land to build the indoor rink but she said that nothing ever came of it. They never came back.

Mr. Thomas attempted to again get some kind on indoor rink for practice in May of 2007. He found cooling mats and a buliding that could be used in Milbank. This building was not regulation size but every other hockey association in the area agreed that you start out small and work your way up. The other area hockey associations were eager to help and encouraged making use of the smaller size indoor rink as a start. With this kind of rink the teams could practice indoors in October and November when the outdoor rink was sometimes not ready. They could use it to generate money for open figure skating or lessons, curling, etc. and as the numbers of people using it increased it would have brought in more people and more support. That is how many indoor rinks got started, by starting small and growing with interest.

Mr. Thomas approached the hockey board with his opportunity and was disappointed with the response that is refered to in a previous post on this thread. Mr. Thomas felt that there was no need to continue any further after two failed attempts to bring in an indoor rink and eventually left the board.
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mouthpiece
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Number of posts : 721
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PostSubject: Great Job!   The Hockey Rink - Page 2 Icon_minitimeTue Feb 24, 2009 7:02 pm

I was very impressed on how you were able to find minutes that the hockey association could not locate.

On the other hand, the new President insists that openness in government will instill trust. Locally, the minutes disappeared and no one could find them. Then thinking we did not have any records the association could hide the truth.

We need to look at this as citizens of Ortonville more carefully because the minutes missing is a problem consistently exposed on this forum. Why?

There is more to come.
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Bleedgreen
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PostSubject: Re: The Hockey Rink   The Hockey Rink - Page 2 Icon_minitimeFri Feb 27, 2009 1:10 pm

In the last few days, I have received messages on my home telephone answering system in regards to my leaving the Big Stone Lake Hockey Assc. Parents are just now finding out the real story so I thought I would go on record here and put an end to the speculation.

Before the season started this last fall, I had requested to the Big Stone Lake Hockey Board that my son be able to skate up a level to the sqirt level. His age still made him a mite, but his talent would permit him to compete at the squirt level. When I first made my request, President Trish Kellen said that it would not be a problem for him to skate up and she would get me the proper paperwork to fill out. After about a week I received a call from another board member telling me that my son would not be granted the request to skate up for the reason that they needed the numbers at their mite level. They only had 6 mite players and he would be #7. Naturally I was disappointed as was my son. He wanted to skate with kids of his own skill level and I wanted that also as he would not progress in skill, skating with less experienced kids. I then asked him if he wanted to skate in Watertown with their program. He told me that he did not want to skate there and that I should ask the Big Stone Board one more time. I asked a board member and they brought the response back to me from the President that "it wouldn't be fair to the kids that are of the right age to be sitting on the bench when my son would be playing" I didn't understand that reasoning as anyone who knows hockey knows that the lines are constantly switching in and out. After my son understood that the Big Stone Squirts didn't want him, he agreed to skate in Watertown. As is proper procedure with hockey programs around the state, I was told by Watertown that I would have to ask Big Stone to sign a release for my son. I then emailed President Trish to sign a release for my son so he could play in Watertown. She emailed me back and wanted me to come to the board meeting so I could give the board my reasons to them to sign a release. As we were slated to have practice that evening I gave her my reasons via email. She thought that I should still come and give my reasons in person. I told her to just sign the release so we could get on with the season. She then told me never to email her again. The move to Watertown has been a very good move for us. My son has made alot of new friends, he has had the competition he needs and he will be able to move up each level all the way to the varsity level if he so wishes. So, for all the Squirt parents that were wondering why we left, there you have it. I sure the board has their side and you can make your own decisions as to who is right and who is wrong. I just know my son is playing hockey and loving it.
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