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Burl Hash tells me that Maine Arts, Inc., wants to turn the Congress Square Performance Area adjacent to the Radisson Eastland Hotel into a small ice skating rink.

It would be beautiful, wouldn't it? City manager Bob Ganley told me about the same idea in 1989.

Of course, to do it the right way would cost some money. Don Matthews of the Parks Department, who oversees the outdoor flooding of Deering Oaks and Payson Park, says, "When they first built the plaza in the 1970s, they were going to do this, with refrigeration and Zambonis to keep the ice in good shape, but they never got around to it."

But could we do it now, on a shoestring?

Weather permitting, yes. "Icould go up there and put some black plastic down with some sand and two-by-fours, and I could give you some ice, two or three inches. Ifyou did it during the last part of December and into the deep freeze of Jan,. uary, you'd have a nice little rink there."

Remember Cary Grant and Loretta Young skating together in the movies (where a double steps in for Cary and does a Dick Button impression?) That's the kind of figure-skating rink we're talking about.

Without refrigeration, extending the rink into February would be just about unthinkable, because "the stonework would draw heat out of the sun. When Deering Oaks starts to break up, you notice it's around the stone wall first. Then, once you have water on the ice, it's like a magnifying glass."

Still, he says, once we get three straight days of 17-below weather, it's possible to create a charming downtown skating rink "with a garden hose." We could see people skating right here this year-without costly studies-before deciding on the refrigeration, security, and bond issues.

There is another side to this, though. I mean, who'd want to see skaters swirling and enjoying themselves in downtown Portland on Christmas Eve? •