Council denies plan to relocate hockey rink to Community Park

The Rowlett City Council on May 19 voted unanimously to deny a contract to relocate the city's outdoor hockey rink to Community Park, removing from consideration a vendor proposal not to exceed $343,790.47 (base $312,536.79 plus a 10% contingency).

Mayor Jeff Winget said the council's preference was to reconsider the project in light of ongoing municipal-complex planning and the anticipated redesign of Hereford Park. "Because there is still research and work going on as far as where the municipal complex is ultimately going to be located, I think that has a direct impact on Hereford Park," Winget said. He framed denying the item as a pause to avoid committing to a location that could be superseded by larger facility plans.

Council discussion highlighted technical and budgetary reasons. Staff said roughly $60,000 has been spent to date on design and geotechnical work that may not fully transfer to a different site; staff also flagged challenging soil conditions across multiple candidate sites. Councilmember Gibbs moved to deny the item, and the motion carried without opposition. "So yes means no. In this case, no means yes," the mayor said before the hand vote, clarifying the council's procedural framing for the motion.

Public commenters had urged keeping the rink at Hereford Park. Robert Stockard, who has run the local inline-hockey league for decades, said the rink is a downtown anchor that draws out-of-city participants and local economic activity. "This organization is an anchor for downtown Rowlett," Stockard said during citizen input.

Next steps: with the denial, staff and council said any future move would require rebidding if the city seeks a new site later and that the council will continue broader conversations about park design and municipal-complex siting before returning to this question.