Harvard kids and parents who aspire to skate like Nancy Kerrigan might want to pray to the gods of winter for the return of old-timey February temperatures.
At their Monday night meeting, Parks and Recreation Commission members voted unanimously, 4-0, to permit Emma Leonard a Bromfield junior associated with the Colonial Figure Skating Club Inc. of Boxborough to offer Learn to Skate classes on Saturday afternoons rent free at the recently constructed town center ice rink. Tuesday afternoon, however, higher-than-normal temperatures were melting the ice, and as word of the arrangement reached Town Hall, questions of indemnity and insurance threatened to delay the program’s start, regardless of weather.
Learn to Skate is an introductory program designed by the U.S. Figure Skating program to provide young and inexperienced skaters with a “fun and positive experience” that instills in them a love of skating while teaching the fundamentals of figure skating.
The program is open to any child 3 years of age or older. Class size will be limited to 15 skaters, Leonard told the commission, and at least one teacher will be provided for every five kids. Each skater must join Learn to Skate USA, pay a one-time $20 membership fee, which will be collected by Colonial Figure Skating, and sign a waiver agreeing that participation is at a skater’s own risk. Classes are free once a skater has registered. Teenagers and adults are welcome.
Leonard said that weather permitting, she will offer her first class Saturday, Feb. 16, from 1:30 until 2:15 p.m. Because online sign-up is not available, registration will be first come, first served. Skaters are required to bring their own helmets and skates and will not be allowed on the ice without them. Classes will be held weekly at the same time as long as the rink is skateable. Classes will be taught by experienced Colonial Club figure skaters. Additional details will be posted on Nextdoor Harvard and signs in town buildings.
In their vote to approve the program, the Parks and Rec commissioners asked Leonard to advertise her classes first to Harvard residents before publicizing them in other towns. Commissioner Bob O’Shea, who sponsored Leonard’s appearance, said he hoped the program would increase use of the rink.
On Tuesday afternoon, however, Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro notified Parks and Rec chair Doug Thornton that the town would not allow the program to begin until Colonial had revised its waiver and provided proof of insurance. She told the Press she had advised Colonial and Learn to Skate they would need to add “the Town of Harvard and its agents” to the waiver that participants are asked to sign on joining the program. She said the organization must also provide a liability insurance policy naming the Town of Harvard and its agents as additional insureds. The policy must provide coverage of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $3,000,000 aggregate, the same coverage the town requires of the Bare Hill Rowing Association for use of the beach and pond for its practices and meets. Colonial must provide proof of insurance prior to its first lesson.
The weather hasn’t been helping. Temperatures this week reached near-record highs of 60-plus degrees Fahrenheit, melting most of the rink’s ice and undoing the work of the volunteers who had labored the previous week to prepare a skateable surface. Bromfield students making their way to the General Store Tuesday afternoon could be seen wading in what had become a pool. Daytime temperatures were forecast to remain above freezing for the rest of the week.
