Rink

t the Stamford Twin Rinks (STR), as they say, time flies when you're having fun, and it's been quite a journey and a fabulous learning experi- ence at this facility. The rinks are located in a residential neighborhood 40 minutes from New York City in the southwest corner of Connecticut. Opening its doors in the autumn of 1996, STR was heralded as the premier skating facility in Fairfield County. It has lived up to this designation by keeping a keen eye toward the future, and with an unfaltering commitment toward customer satisfaction. The team at STR has worked hard at running a state-of-the-art entertainment facility in one of the busiest regions of the New York metro area. Teamwork is the name of the game at STR. Led by Mark Zito, the STR management staff hosts a number of ice and industry professionals. Former New York Ranger Mike Backman heads up the STR hockey department while gold medalists and husband and wife team Francis and Emily Cassella pilot the figure skating side of the arena. STR is a member of the PSA "Excellence on Ice" and winner of the 2006 PSA Fritz Dietl Rink of the Year award. STR figure skating programs boasts more than 1,200 participants in their skating school with five annual cycles and a full summer skating school. Tots through adults are offered classes in basic skills, freestyle, M.I.F., synchronized skating, power skating, dance and begin- ner's hockey. Off-ice programs are avail- able in ice fitness and ballet. Basic skills competitions and an end-of-year ice show for participants round out the offerings to assure that all participants have fun while learning their skills. STR also shines through its very well known, varied and multi-level hockey programs and development camps.In addition, STR hosts a number of youth tournaments throughout the year, such as the Fall Classic, which takes place over two weekends in September and acts as the kick-off of the autumn hockey season. Adult hockey players of all skill levels enjoy league play on both rinks through- out the entire year. Six tiers, 50 teams and more than 800 players participate in the league. After skating they can enjoy a cold beverage from the Ice View restaurant, which overlooks both rinks. Rounding out the schedule, STR offers more than 27 hours of public skating each week, when patrons can make use of the arena and party facilities for birthday parties or corporate events, and can visit the newly renovated Legends Café for a snack. As far as the facility itself is concerned, STR has been very active in upgrading and renovation. Since opening its doors for business over 13 years ago, the cost of energy has risen dramatically, and the rink has been meeting this challenge through a series of lighting renovations and energy conservation efforts. Two years ago, the rink removed all metal halide fixtures from the building and replaced these with the latest T-5 fluorescents, thus shedding 70 percent of the rink lighting energy load while increasing base lumen output by over 40 percent. A third (since opening the arena) total renovation of lighting throughout all common areas of the build- ing is scheduled to take place before year's end to reap additional energy savings. Currently, the largest solar energy system in the area is being constructed at the arena. The custom designed system consists of 1,440 mono-crystalline silicon panels with a state-of-the-art SMA Sunny Central inverter located on the roof to minimize energy losses. The system will produce 350,000 KWH of energy annually over a life span of 20 to25 years of virtu- ally maintenance-free operation, and is absolutely pollution-free. The system will be monitored by an energy kiosk in the lobby of the rink that will show energy production in real-time and also data-log energy production history on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis, and can be monitored on the web. Stay tuned! ★ Dave Ziem is the facility operations manager at the Stamford Twin Rinks in Stamford, Conn. 16 R INK MAGAZ INE november/december 2009 featured rink Where are they now? STARrinks.com Stamford Twin Rinks Stamford, Conn. A by DAVE ZIEM Originally featured in March/April 2002 ■ Each issue we'll re-visit a facility that has been highlighted in a past issue as a Featured Rink.

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