The district owns the building, which students, community members and visitors use for its climate-controlled ice skating rink.

On Oct. 17, district staff found the rink’s chilling vessel — essential for ice production — to be significantly malfunctioning and inoperable, according to TLCSD Superintendent Jaycee Welsh.

She said this problem was caught before the unit was turned on for the season to begin making ice. Had it been activated, Welsh said it would have likely caused significant collateral damage to other pieces of equipment required for ice production.

The senator asked district officials about the civic center’s history, received an update on the ice-making system — including the broken chilling vessel — and discussed the district’s tax structure and how they fund the facility.

Tupper Lake Central School District Superintendent Jaycee Welsh greets state Sen. Dan Stec outside of the Tupper Lake Memorial Civic Center on Thursday. Stec was given a tour of the civic center and discussed the broken chilling unit, which is currently preventing the rink from being used. (Provided photo — Tupper Lake Central School District)

“We talked about what’s aidable (by the state Education Department) and not aidable, just because a school district owning a civic center is not typical,” Welsh said.

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Financial difficulties

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Welsh explained the district’s dilemma. State Department of Education aid for repairs and maintenance can only apply to buildings in a school district that have “significant (academic) instructional time,” or directly support it, such as certain repairs for school bus garages. The civic center does not meet the department’s standards, she said.

State Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, far left, looks at operating systems at the Tupper Lake Memorial Civic Center on Thursday. Stec was given a tour of the civic center and discussed the broken chilling unit, which is currently preventing the rink from being used. (Provided photo — Tupper Lake Central School District)

“No work at the civic center is ever aidable. It’s zero aid all the time,” she said.

Welsh said this makes it financially “challenging” for the district to own the civic center, which has long been a contentious issue among district taxpayers.

“(The district) either (has) to foot the entire bill without a revenue stream, or, you have to put it into a capital project,” she said. “Even if it’s in a capital project, you still won’t get any aid for it.”

Capital projects for districts throughout the state must be approved by majority votes of both the board of education and district voters.

In October 2023, district voters — by a margin of 146 to 99 — approved a nearly $20.5 million capital project that included a variety of structural and security upgrades for buildings.

The state Education Department picked up the majority of the funding — about $15.2 million — and the remainder was footed directly by district taxpayers, as most of the projects covered by the vote were, to varying degrees, aidable.

Upgrades to the civic center, including replacing the rink’s dehumidification system — which the district completed this year — did not receive any state aid. They were fully covered by district taxpayers.

A chilling vessel replacement or repair was not included in the 2023 capital project vote.

“This unit was close to end-of-life, so it not functioning right now is not a surprise, unfortunately,” she said.

Welsh, who was hired as superintendent in July 2024, said she could not speak to conversations district officials had when deciding what to include — or not include — in the 2023 list of projects for district voters to consider.

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The current situation

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J. Hogan Refrigeration and Mechanical, L.L.C. — a Peru, New York-based company — gave the district an initial assessment. Prior to that, Welsh said the hope was to plug the chilling unit’s leaking tubes, which would be the quickest — albeit a temporary — fix.

She said the company did not believe that could be a possible solution.

“It doesn’t look like plugging the tubes is going to be a viable option,” Welsh said.

The company instead recommended that the district have the chilling vessel’s tubing replaced, according to Welsh. She said that while this recommendation would not make for as quick of a fix, it would “add some shelf life” beyond the immediate season once completed.

Welsh added that this was just a recommendation and that the district has not confirmed that this is what they will do.

The repair’s price tag, and how the district would go about addressing it, remain indeterminable, according to Welsh. She said that the district is currently trying to find a company that could provide a price quote.

“There are only a couple of specialized companies who do this (type of repair) in New York state,” she said. “Our guys are on the phone trying to figure out if somebody can get out here, give us a quote and what that time(line) would be. … We haven’t gotten a company out here yet to give us a quote or look at the machine, other than Hogan.”

Stec’s office did not return a phone call to talk about the civic center visit by press time; however, following his visit, the senator wrote in a campaign Facebook post that “my staff and I are ready to assist any way we can.” It remained unclear if there was any possibility of securing funding from outside of the state Education Department to assist the district with the repair costs.

Until the chilling vessel is repaired or replaced, the rink will not be skateable, as it is essential for ice production.

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Rental unit not feasible

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Welsh said the district looked into the possibility of temporarily renting a chilling vessel but soon ruled it out. Welsh explained that the rental units use a different fluid, glycol, than the civic center’s system, which uses a brine solution.

“In order for us to hook up our brine system to a glycol system, it would cost about $100,000 to flush out the entire system because you can’t have any brine left if you’re going to be running on glycol,” Welsh said.

Welsh added that after the $100,000 flush charge, the district was quoted a minimum of $30,000 per month in rental fees for the unit.

“And that would be on top of us knowing that we still have to replace the chilling vessel at the end of (the rental period),” she said, adding that these costs were too much for the district.