The Bangor City Parks, Recreation and Harbor Committee heard an update Oct. 9 on Sawyer Ice Arena’s effort to open for the winter season after its 31-year-old chiller failed and required replacement.

Joe Nelson, a member of the public who spoke to the committee as a Sawyer volunteer and longtime rink operator, said the arena’s original chiller — “31 years old” and rebuilt once — suffered new damage and that insurance is expected to cover a permanent replacement. “I had the great news of today being told it should be on-site tomorrow,” Nelson said, referring to a rented chiller the city has leased while the permanent unit is replaced and installed. Nelson told the committee the rental chiller will take several days to hook up and that ice-building is weather-dependent.

The timeline matters to local teams and programs: Nelson said the arena had been targeting an Oct. 25 opening but has told the hockey community that opening will likely be pushed back. “My best guess is we’re gonna be opening around the November if everything goes right,” he said, describing the multi-step process of freezing layers of water over the facility’s sand floor, painting the rink and reaching a safe thickness for Zamboni use.

Nelson described operational constraints beyond the mechanical failure: staffing shortages for ice maintenance, limited evening hours, and high demand from combined area programs. He said youth hockey in Bangor and Brewer is increasing and that the consolidated Bangor–Brewer high-school teams will place more evening demand on available ice. Nelson said Sawyer typically must cap learn-to-skate enrollments and relies heavily on student instructors.

Committee members and staff noted the long-standing planning assumption for a second sheet at a new facility. A committee member told the room, “There is a demand out there for that extra sheet. Hence, why we’ve kept it in and continue to keep it in the concepts of the new facility,” and cited early-morning practice availability as a driver of demand.

Discussion — not a formal vote — focused on operational impacts and scheduling: how high-school schedules, youth hockey, and adult recreational uses compete for the single sheet; the need to coordinate with area athletic directors; and short-term mitigation while the rented chiller is installed. No motions or funding approvals were taken at the meeting because the committee did not have a quorum and continued the session as an open public conversation.

City staff and volunteer operators said they will prioritize getting the rented chiller online, completing the ice build as weather allows, and communicating schedule updates to the hockey community and other users.