Greenwich’s skating rink was built as an outdoor rink in 1971 and was designated as the Dorothy Hamill Skating Rink in 1976.  The rink is on Sue Merz Way in Byram on a site bordered by Western Jr. Highway.   The rink serves thousands of users each year: figure skaters, public skaters, youth hockey groups for boys and girls, and men’s and women’s teams from Greenwich High School.    At present, the 50‐year‐old facility has a number of fundamental and critical issues, notably substandard ice size and inadequate, aging, and non‐code‐compliant locker rooms, equipment, building systems and fixtures.  The Town will build a new, high quality single rink facility adjacent to the existing rink on today’s Strazza Field baseball diamond and construct a new Strazza Field on the footprint of today’s rink.  The new rink and improved Strazza Field will serve Town users with excellence for decades to come.   

The public Eugene Morlot Memorial Park of 13.4 acres includes the rink, Strazza Field, a parking lot, a playscape, swing set, the Byram Veterans’ Memorial Tree Grove, a wooded area and a grassy hillside.  The proposed plan is to construct a new rink of approximately 40,500 square feet with a gable roof centered over the ice.  The improved Strazza field will be properly sized and oriented.  Also under consideration is a new two‐lane driveway from Western Jr. Highway directly into the existing parking lot.  This would be an improvement in public access and traffic safety.   

In the approved budgets for fiscal years 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Representative Town Meeting and Board of Estimate and Taxation voted to provide funds to retain architects to develop preliminary plans for the new rink and Park infrastructure. After a competitive selection process, SLAM Collaborative of Glastonbury, CT was chosen as architects to design the new facility.