Ice Rink

gregs@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - The main offices for the City of Hagerstown's Parks and Recreation Department will be taking a hike soon, but not too far. The offices on East Memorial Boulevard overlook a dusty parking lot and an equipment depot for the public works department. Soon, Recreation Superintendent Patty Edleblute said, the offices will have a more sporty view at Fairgrounds Park. "I think it's going to be very positive for our department," Edleblute said Thursday.

"Could someone please tell me where I could get in touch with somebody about a school bus in the Pangborn area allowing dogs to get on the bus and getting biscuits every morning and every evening when she drops and picks up kids? This has happened different times and I'd like to know who I get in touch with about her letting dogs on the bus and holding up the bus so the dogs can get their biscuit. " - Hagerstown "I saw on the news where basically the ice rink board is telling these young competitive figure skaters that they can go to other rinks.

gregs@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - A figure skating coach who gained the support of her students and their parents after she was notified she would be dismissed will not be allowed to coach at the Hagerstown Ice & Sports Complex, according to a letter distributed by the organization that runs the rink. The statement reaffirms a March decision that would let Erin Benedum go later this month and also would ban the advanced-level skating coach for one year from asking for privileges to coach independently at the rink.

It's getting to be a rite of spring. Well, more often, really - a rite of spring, summer, fall and winter. Those are the times we can gleefully rub our hands together in anticipation and wonder: Which "new direction" is the Hagerstown Ice & Sports Complex going in this season? It's always a new something. A new direction, a new manager, a new mission, yet another new manager. Certainly the current City Council has more serious things to answer for, such as the hospital mess and sewage discharges into the Antietam Creek, but the schizophrenic handling of the Hagerstown ice rink doesn't exactly build confidence in the council's managing abilities.

gregs@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Haley Hicks said she's been ice skating for six of her 10 years, and four of those have been under the tutelage of coach Erin Benedum. "I try to do my best to do whatever I can. I'm rushing my school work - I do whatever I can to get to the rink," Haley said, describing her love of ice skating. "If Erin can't be my coach ... then I'm probably going to stop skating," at least competitively, Haley said. Haley and about 10 other youngsters and their parents gathered at the Hagerstown Ice & Sports Complex Wednesday afternoon, some holding signs asking for their coach to be able to continue coaching at the rink.

A Hagerstown ice skating coach who was told last week she had 30 days left to coach at the city-owned Hagerstown Ice & Sports Complex spoke Tuesday night before the City Council, asking that she be reinstated. Erin Benedum, 27, said she has been involved in competitive skating for 17 years, and has been teaching in Hagerstown since 1999. "This is what I do. ... I have put my heart and soul into it," Benedum said. Both Benedum and rink skating director Jennifer Kaszubski were told last week they were being let go because of a "new direction" the rink was taking.

janeth@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Vicki Sefsic started working at the Hagerstown Ice and Sports Complex at Hagerstown's Fairgrounds Park in January 1998, just months after the rink opened, as the "snack bar girl. " Since then, she has worked her way up to become a part-time supervisor and now drives the Zamboni, a machine used to resurface the ice. Her car is easy to spot - it's the one with the license plate frame that reads "My other vehicle is a Zamboni. " Sefsic, of Hagerstown, "Zams" the ice after every hockey game, every hour during public skating sessions if there's a good crowd and after freestyle skating sessions.

shappell@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - David P. Brandenburg has been named the new arena manager at the Hagerstown Sports & Ice Complex. The Hagerstown native is at least the seventh person to take the position since the rink opened in 1997, said the chairwoman of the Washington County Sports Foundation, the group that runs the complex. City Director of Administrative Services John Budesky said Brandenburg took over as rink manager in mid-September. Budesky said Brandenburg's salary, which he did not have available Sunday, would be based partly on bonuses stemming from rink profits.

gregs@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - The City of Hagerstown is one step closer to having more control over the financially troubled Hagerstown Ice & Sports Complex. The City Council on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to have officials begin drafting a new agreement between the city and the Washington County Sports Foundation, which is the group currently leasing the ice rink from the city. Under the proposed agreement, the city likely would spend more money on the rink in the foreseeable future, but would have more financial control over the sports foundation.

What are they thinking up at Hagerstown's City Hall? The latest proposal to deal with the money pit known as the Ice & Sports Complex is for the city government to get more involved - and spend even more taxpayer money. That's a bad idea, for two reasons. The first is that unless Dorothy Hamill has secretly taken a job with the city's Parks and Recreation Department, it's doubtful anyone there has the expertise needed to manage the rink. The second is that the idea was developed without the input of the Washington County Sports Foundation, which controls rink operations.