The Rinx in Hauppauge to reopen June 11 after $5.6 million in repairs, upgrades

Melanie Serrano regularly takes her young daughter to The Rinx, the popular ice rink at Hidden Pond Park in Hauppauge for lessons. When Serrano heard the facility was closing for repairs, she worried how to keep her 7-year-old on the ice.

“My daughter loves figure skating, and getting her to the Bethpage rink is very difficult,” said Serrano, 42, who lives in Ronkonkoma. 

Still, she said, The Rinx, on Terry Road, “really needed to be renovated,” adding, it looked the same as when she skated there as a child.

“The community deserves an updated ice rink, a place for sports, camps and fun for all," she said. 

When the facility, which has been closed since late February, reopens on June 11 after approximately $5.6 million in renovations, it will sport two new ice rinks, along with other upgrades, including an additional scoreboard at each rink and heating in the stands — the first major renovations at the rink since it opened in 1992.

Systems supporting one of the two rinks at the recreation center were “compromised,” said company president Tom Palamara, forcing the facility to invest in upgrades or face a “catastrophic failure” of both rinks.

"The subfloor heating system in one of the rinks, the south rink, became compromised and no longer was functioning," he said. "And because of that, frost built up underneath the rink and started to literally heave the cement, and eventually there would have been catastrophic failure in that rink, which would have taken both rinks down."

Palamara said the center, run by The Rinx corporation, based in Hauppauge, is “just replacing what was there.” More than 1 million people use the ice skating rinks annually, he said.

“We are not adding another surface; we’re not adding any more hours … We’ll have the same programming, same offerings,” Palamara said, adding that construction is running ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, regular skaters at the Hauppauge rink, including the Stony Brook University hockey team, have scattered to other Long Island ice arenas.

Head coach and general manager Chris Garofalo said the team had advance notice and was able to temporarily move for the last two weeks of the season to Dix Hills Ice Rink. 

Garofalo said the upgrades will “be great for the community.” 

“It’s going to be great for us to be on two brand-new ice sheets that we could play on,” he said. 

“After a certain amount of time things need to be fixed and renovated, just like a house,” he added. “At some point, you’ve got to pull the Band-Aid off."

The Town of Islip also has extended the facility's lease of the 97-acre Hidden Pond Park to 2046.

“It certainly is one of the gems of our park system,” said Islip Supervisor Angie Carpenter.

The facility also offers swimming pools and a preschool and day camp, and hosts events such as birthday parties and corporate picnics.

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.