By Elise Hinman
Northside News
The City of Madison recently initiated a resolution to transfer ownership of Hartmeyer Ice Arena, 1834 Commercial Ave., from Madison Ice Incorporated (MII) to the newly formed East Madison Ice Collective (EMIC) for $1, forgiving the $1.6 million debt owed to the City by MII. This comes in addition to the $3 million worth of needed repairs for the aging facility.
At a public meeting on Dec. 12 organized by Alder Amani Latimer-Burris, two details were clear: Hartmeyer’s programs are beloved by north/east side patrons of all ages, but several community members were leery of the swift and opaque nature of the transfer.
The meeting began with an explanation of the transfer by Matthew Mikolajewski, economic development director for the City. MII took ownership of both Hartmeyer and the Madison Ice Arena in 2004 through a land contract with the City. MII has since defaulted on its contract, making no payments following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Economic Development Committee determined the best path forward was to give a private entity (EMIC) three years to raise the required $3 million before transferring Hartmeyer ownership from MII to EMIC. Then, the City would progressively forgive the $1.6 million debt racked up by MII over a 15-year period, provided that EMIC maintains Hartmeyer as a sports and recreation facility with adequate cash reserves to support normal business operations. If EMIC fails to follow through with the agreement, they will be on the hook for some portion of the debt.
Over 30 comments were shared at the meeting. Several in support of the resolution came from families who have benefited greatly from Hartmeyer’s hockey, speed skating and figure skating programs. The Learn to Skate program and Madison Patriots recreational hockey team were mentioned as key resources for the community, and many speakers expressed concern about losing an indoor ice arena as climate change narrows the availability of outdoor ice.
While everyone in the room appeared supportive of the programs provided by an indoor ice arena, a few expressed hesitation at the resolution, especially in light of the successful Madison tax referendum, followed by a $20 million end-of-year budget surplus forecasted by the City. “[It’s] a bit of a sweetheart deal…the optics suck,” said one commenter, while others questioned why there hadn’t been an appraisal on the Hartmeyer property or a transparent economic analysis. “It bothers me [that] there’s no consequence when the payments weren’t made. That’s not good,” said a Northside resident of MII’s default. Still others urged the community and the City to think bigger, and consider whether $3 million toward Hartmeyer will meet the community’s needs.
The resolution #86169 can be found on Madison’s Legistar site at madison.legistar.com/Legislation.aspx.
The resolution was presented to the City of Madison Finance Committee on Jan. 6, and the committee unanimously backed the measure. At its meeting on Jan. 14, the Madison Common Council backed the deal.
