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Voices united in the call for new management of the Falleti Ice Arena

By Philip Anselmo

Not much to report on this yet, but a half dozen people spoke at the City Council meeting tonight, asking the city to seek new management for the Falleti Ice Arena in Batavia. They spoke in pretty condemning terms, claiming that the arena is no longer "a family-based skating wrink." One speaker went as far as to say that under the new management: "We've had our right to skate taken away."

The central issue among all the complainants was the allegedly unceremonious banishing of skate instructor Joan Disbrow from the arena. According to the mother of one young skater, a member of the management crew, Firland Management, vociferously dismissed Disbrow from the premises while she was on the ice with one of her students.

Councilwoman Marianne Clattenburg spoke up after all of the comments had been made. She said she has heard from several families that have made similar claims. "I think we may have made the wrong mistake with Firland Management," she said.

Council members Kathy Briggs, Rose Mary Christian and Bill Cox all agreed.

"I'm concerned with the volume of complaints—all one-sided," said Cox. "We need to give citizens the right to have a good skate and enjoy their sport."

A representative of Firland Management, Jim Cain, was scheduled to speak at the meeting. He cancelled. City Manager Jason Molino said that Cain called earlier in the day to say that he was not feeling well and could not attend.

There was some mention, as well, about the unsatisfactory budget report provided by Firland for the city's consideration.

We will look into this story and see what more we can find out.

(UPDATED: Tuesday, 12:03pm): A Daily News article by Joanne Beck features some more details on this issue. Worth checking out.

Brett Podkanowicz

Hmm, I am interested to see how this turns out. I go here regularly, and I do know that some people have said that 'upper management' has changed for the worse. I haven't personally experience anything like this...truly unfortunate, because so many people use this rink.

Jan 26, 2009, 11:35pm Permalink
Timothy Paine

I was suprised to hear we don't check over the numbers. I didn't realize the City just took their accounting figures without checking expenditures. I was upset to hear that there was mistreatment towards residents and customers. There were too many accounts from people both at the meeting and from letters to think this was an incident that was inaccurate. I would hate to think that our City was represented in such a poor fashion. I hope our City leaders conduct a thorough investigation into both of these issues and act swiftly and with proper action towards anyone or company that would harm the arena or our citizens that enjoy its recreation.

Jan 27, 2009, 2:33am Permalink
John Roach

Tim,
When this deal was pushed through by Councilman Frank Ferrando, the question of how to tell if they would give us honest numbers came up. We were told the City would get 5% of the profit, with no way to tell what the profit was. When Mr. Ferrando did not insist on an audit to be part of the contract, what did you expect?

Jan 27, 2009, 5:21am Permalink
Jeff Hughes

We had the great pleasure of living in Batavia for nine years and the ice arena was like a second home. I don't know about the folks who run it now, but back then Dee, Donna and their team did a fantastic job of running a family-friendly operation.

Joan Disbrow taught all four of our kids to skate and I can vouch for what an outstanding instructor she is. We were very fortunate that someone of Joan's caliber would drive the 30 miles back and forth to Batavia in the dead of winter and bring us such a high-quality program.

We loved living in Batavia. The people are kind and genuine. Obviously the individuals behind Joan's dismissal could learn from these values. Sounds like the City needs to find a new rink manager, re-hire Joan Disbrow, and give her the authority to re-build the learn-to-skate program the way it was meant to be run.

I sympathize with the fact that the rink apparently isn't making money, but by and large skating rinks don't seem to be profitable undertakings. Someone definitely needs to clean up the accounting, but the rink is a public benefit and one of the quality of life assets - like the parks and single A baseball - that makes Batavia unique for a city its size. I know it's tough given the existing budget and tax burden, but I also know first hand how important it is to make it work. Have the county pick up a share (non-Batavians use it too) and set up a local (non-profit) management company to run it.

Jan 29, 2009, 7:12pm Permalink

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