County Commissioners move ahead with selling of ice rink

By Jack Chavez Staff Writer

(March 2, 2023) The new Worcester County Commissioners majority will not be deterred in its intent to sell the county’s portable ice rink.

In a 4-3 vote, the commissioners agreed on Feb. 21 to put the rink out for bid to sell it outright through a sealed bid process.

While the intention behind the selling the ice rink is to recoup as much money as possible from what the majority of commissioners — Chip Bertino, Jim Bunting, Caryn Abbott and Eric Fiori — consider a failed county venture, the county will be able to choose to whom the rink is sold.

Commissioners Joe Mitrecic, Diana Purnell and Ted Elder opposed the measure.

The vote came on the heels of a last-ditch effort from Mitrecic to collect narrative proposals from Worcester County entities to whom the county might donate the rink.

“This rink was paid for by the citizens of Worcester County,” Mitrecic reasoned. “It should be used by the citizens of Worcester County. (I’d like to see us) accept a narrative of what these people interested in (the county) would do with it, how they’d utilize it and figure out the best use moving forward and donate to them.”

Bertino said that the taxpayers paid for the ice rink and thus there may be an expectation that they’ll be reimbursed somewhat, perhaps with the money going back into the county’s treasury.

Mitrecic agreed that, yes, the taxpayers bought the ice rink, but it’s now the commissioners who are taking it away.

“Their expectation, if we were concerned about the county taxpayers, we should keep it and let the county people use it,” Mitrecic said. “At least if we donate it to a county entity it’ll be used by county people moving forward and they can continue to utilize their investment, so to speak.” The commissioners did have a list of interested parties, however, and only a handful were organizations within the county.

Jim Bunting

According to a memo from county procurement officer Nicholas Rice, the Ocean City Tourism Department, the Town of Berlin, OCDC and Jolly Rogers are interested. Others included the City of Salisbury, the Town of Ridgely in Caroline County and the Town of Ocean View in Sussex County, Delaware are also interested. Bunting said that there is a way for the ice rink to stay in the county if someone is intent on buying it.

“It was taxpayer money, it was partly my money, and I think we need to get something back for it and put it up for sale,” he said. “If people want it bad enough, we can accept or turn it down.”