Fallsnewspress.com - Village News: Winter days in the village

by Karen Fuller

Ice-skating on a glassy-smooth Silver Lake is a memory I will always cherish. Skating all the way to the island, hot chocolate in the boat house, kids setting up make-shift hockey rinks and playing for hours, all are magical winter moments that unfortunately don't come as often as memory leads us to believe. We can go years between those glass-like conditions. A warm winter (what's that?), a winter with too much snow, rain after snow -- the weather combinations that work against perfect ice seem to be infinite. The truth is that often skating on the lake is just not possible.

Always looking for ways to enhance the village, our Service Department came up with a solution to the skating dilemma. The low areas of the field by the new picnic shelter flood naturally. With a little additional help from the department, the village can have a beautiful and safe skating rink.

The picnic shelter was stocked with wood in anticipation of warming fires and toasted marshmallows. The area was flooded. By Feb. 4 the surface was like glass. All it needed was a "test skate" before opening to the public. Our intrepid Service Director, Dick Fenwick, donned his skates and took to the ice. Rumors that he was seen doing spins, back flips and a triple Lutz are probably exaggerated, but he does admit to having a wonderful time on beautiful ice.

The sign went up in front of Village Hall announcing "Ice Skating Open." The next day the snow began. Keeping our roads plowed clearly takes precedence over a newly made ice rink. When the service department was finally able to clear off the snow, they found an unskateable surface. The sign announcing our grand opening is now frozen in place and will remain there stating "CLOSED" until we get a thaw. On the bright side, seeing that sign day after day may make villagers aware that, when conditions are right, we will have a safe skating area in front of the picnic pavilion.

Our Service Department deserves praise for the work they do keeping our streets safe and plowed. We have five trucks equipped with plows. Trucks are kept full of salt and ready to go. Villagers have questioned the use, or lack of use, of salt this year, and Mr. Fenwick admits that in spite of already using 350 tons of salt, we are using far less than in the past.

Editor's note: To submit information for this column, you can call Fuller at 330-688-5561, or e-mail her at karenleefuller@sbcglobal.net.