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02/15/2021 11:00 PMWith opportunities for outdoor fun in short supply and families always looking for safe activities around the area, Guilford residents should not yet give up on ice-related recreation on Mill Pond as the town keeps working to make it safe and ready for skating.
Parks & Recreation Director Rick Maynard said that with up to a month of cold enough weather, he and his staff are closely monitoring conditions in order to hopefully open up the pond to residents, potentially even this week, though light rain and overnight warmth were working against an opening.
While Maynard warned people not to take matters into their own hands and try to clean snow off the surface—or trespass on the pond dispute posted signage—the town has pulled out all the stops trying to make the ice safe and usable.
“We called the fire department...we have a little thing called a ‘Bambini,’ like a baby Zamboni,” Maynard said. “So the guys are pumping water into it, trying to put a layer [of ice] down.”
So far, the pond has only been safe on one day, which saw more than 100 people visit to skate or just slide around on the ice throughout the day, Maynard estimated, with town staff building bonfires and serving as monitors.
“People were really excited,” he said. “The ice was good, but it got rough.”
One day of pond-skating is better than last year, according to Maynard, when the pond never opened at all, but it’s also far from the best winter for ice enthusiasts, which was several years ago and saw 20 total days of open pond skating.
Even with consistent cold temperatures, there are plenty of other factors that go into the decision on whether the ice is safe, according to Maynard. Superficial roughness caused by snow that melts or turns to slush and then freezes has been the biggest problem in recent weeks, he said, and makes skating unsafe.
But conditions below the ice can also make seemingly thick ice less than safe especially as the days see more sunlight, Maynard said, with the pond losing structural integrity in a way that wouldn’t necessarily be obvious to the average skater. He warned people to obey posted signage and not try their luck if the pond is closed.
“They don’t know why it’s not safe. There could be a crack; it could be a lot of different things,” he said. “We really don’t want people out there.”
Different types of ice also have different strengths, Maynard said, and though as of last week there was plenty of ice to even drive vehicles on, that can also change quickly.
Maynard also cautioned against people trying to clear snow themselves, even in small areas. Some years ago, one person with a snowblower cleared a path to go ice fishing, according to Maynard, and the snow drifts they left behind made it impossible to effectively clear the pond for town staff, meaning no one else could skate for the rest of the winter.
Throwing rocks or sticks on the ice, which many people do to test its thickness, is also unhelpful and can make it harder for town staff to clear the pond and make it safe, according to Maynard.
“We always tell people, if it says the pond is closed, don’t go on it,” he said.
Any questions about Mill Pond should be directed to Parks & Recreation at 203-453-8068.