The dismantling of the Cantiague Park Ice Rink began Saturday in preparation of the installation of the new boards, seamless glass and benches set for July 14th. This marks the first time since the opening of the rink in 1972 that the boards have been replaced and the County's most heralded rink, one that used to serve as the practice home rink to the New York Islanders during their Stanley Cup dynasty years of the 1980s, gets its long overdue re-working. 

Bringing down the old and ringing in the new began as the crew removed the nets that hang above the glass from each end of the arena. Then, it was onto the removal of the glass, each pane placed on skids and set aside for possible future use. After all the glass was down, it was on to the next step of removing the aluminum brackets that held the glass in place. Screw by rusty screw, the brackets were removed as the boards were stripped down and were ready to be removed after the ice fully melted. The benches were removed as well, as a whole new home and visitor bench area, along with penalty boxes, are set to be installed as part of the renovation. 

Next step in the process will take place over the course of the next few days as Mother Nature and the high July temperatures do their work and the ice melts down to the concrete. After that, the boards will be removed and final preparations will be made for the installation of the new boards which will arrive at Cantiague July 14th.

Stay tuned and follow www.nassaucountyhockey.com as we continue to update the progress of the construction. 
 

Nassau County Hockey Directors Mark LaMarr and Joe Trimarchi remove the final pane of glass as the dismantling of the old Cantiague Park Ice Rink begins

Panes of glass are stacked and hauled away as the cleanup begins

      Brackets that once held the glass in place are pried away

Nassau County Hockey Directors Mark LaMarr and Joe Trimarchi say goodbye to the old 
 

The zamboni scrapes away layers of ice and gets the Cantiague ice down to the concrete
 

 Say goodbye to the home and visitor benches

The crew works its way around the rink, removing the glass pane by pane

What's left of the blue line as the ice melt begins and the zamboni makes its rounds

The ice is slowly losing the battle as the concrete below the ice begins to show
 

What was once the goal crease is being melted away
 

A look at underneath the rink at Cantiague and what makes the ice stay frozen, even in the 90 degree temperatures of July

Boards down, ice melting, glass removed and its onto phase two of the Cantiague construction project

Construction of the new Cantiague Park Ice Rink continued this week as the ice, now fully melted down to the cement, left behind a mess of wet white paint, faceoff circles, dots, blue lines and the rink's boards that were slowly disappearing.

Full board dismantling and demolition began Tuesday, July 6th, as outside temperatures reached the triple-digit range and the ice inside was now completely melted away. What remained was a wet mixture of a base white paint on a concrete slab with taped on guides that once served as bluelines, the center ice red line and faceoff circles. The crew began work by removing the boards in the zamboni door area, moving around the rink toward the scoreboard area and along the sideboards, eventually reaching the benches. Up since 1972, the old boards will be disposed of, leaving behind only a slab of concrete that will eventually serve as a base for the new boards, complete with seamless glass. 

Check out this link for a video on how the ice will be rebuilt once the project is complete.

Work will continue as the project remains on schedule for the new boards and glass, which are set to arrive at Cantiague on July 14th. Stay tuned towww.nassaucountyhockey.com for updates on the progress as the Cantiague Park Ice Rink facelift continues for the 2010-2011 season and beyond.
 

And down they go, the old boards on their way out

Busted concrete that once held in the old boards 

Don't be fooled, that's not a fresh ice cut, but a wet layer of white paint and a red faceoff dot ... minus the ice
 

Thirty-plus years of service and these boards served Cantiague well

The Cantiague ice, now fully melted, reveals the concrete slab that lies beneath and maintains the rink temperature

What was once the faceoff circle in the scoreboard end of the ice and home to millions of Russian Circles over the years is reduced to a mess of wet white paint and tape

The crew removes another section of the boards

That was the goal crease at one time, but now reduced to busted plastic and concrete

The yellow dasher boards are removed as the crew makes their way around the rink

The old Cantiague ice surface, now suitable for roller hockey

Work on Cantiague Park's ice rink renovation is moving along according to schedule. The first piece of the old boards and glass was removed last Saturday, July 3rd, and as of Thursday, July 8th, all that remains is a concrete slab where the old rink once stood. With the new boards set for delivery next Wednesday, July 14th, the project is progressing as planned. 

On Tuesday, the process of removing the old boards began. The crew worked on taking down the six-plus-foot sections of the old boards and by late Wednesday, completed their demolition. Included in the removal was the old bench area. When the old home and visitor bench area, along with the penalty box area, were taken down, Nassau County Hockey Director Mark LaMarr replenished his collection of lost pucks, as nearly 300 pucks were found beneath the old benches. Three full buckets of pucks, along with hundreds of plastic bottle caps, mouthpieces and various other junk were discovered under the 30-plus year-old bench area.

Left behind in all the mess is the main concrete slab that serves as the base ice surface. Still slightly wet, the concrete surface was scraped with the zamboni acting as a vacuum, removing the remnants of white paint and taped-on markers that serve as guides for creating the rink's red line, blue lines and faceoff circles. Cleaning the base slab of concrete is the final step prior to next Wednesday's delivery of the new boards and seamless glass. 

Check back here and bookmark www.nassaucountyhockey.com for updates on the construction progress, and check your mailboxes for registration forms and information on the 2010-2011 NCHL Season.
 

An old mouthpiece, perhaps dating back to the 1980s, was just one of the relics unearthed as the old bench area was removed

The aftermath of the old board removal

The old boards head off to their new final resting place

The zamboni works on removing the wet white paint residue from the base concrete slab

The concrete that once held the old Cantiague Park boards 

All that remains of the old Cantiague Ice Rink

A look at the side of the rink along the bleachers

The zamboni cleanup continues in preparation of next week's arrival of the new boards

The area that once served as the neutral zone evaporates in the summer heat

The zamboni removes the old tape that served as guides for painting the faceoff circles

 Wet white paint puddles are all that remain of the old ice rink

New Rink Boards Make Their Cantiague Arrival
On Wednesday afternoon, July 14th, another phase began in the construction of the new Cantiague Park Ice Rink as the new boards arrived and are ready to be constructed.

Now that the old boards lie in an undisclosed garbage dump, the Cantiague ice is completely melted and the white paint and ice markers have been removed, all that remains is a clean slab of concrete being marked for the next phase of the project. The crew meticulously placed markings on the refrigerated concrete slab, noting where the coolant pipes run rinkwide, as the next step of the boards installation involves carefully drilling into the concrete to anchor the boards.

The new boards, shipped on pallets and shrink wrapped, will be set up and assembled in full, only to be drilled down and permanently bolted into the refrigerated concrete slab.

Stay tuned to www.nassaucountyhockey.com and follow the progress of the crew as they move forward with the rink renovation project and near completion. 
 

The new boards make their Cantiague debut
 

The future home of the Cantiague blue line
 

No more waiting for someone to let you off the ice, the new boards come complete with a latch that will let you off from the inside of the rink
 

Remember these guys and thank them when you see them ... they are the architects behind the construction of the new Cantiague Park Ice Rink


The pipes are marked out as the crew gets ready to make pilot holes in the concrete to drill in the new boards and avoid the rink's refrigeration pipes


Three buckets full of pucks were rescued as the old boards were demolished


The side boards await assembling in the bench area


With the melted ice and paint completely removed, all that remains is the refrigerated concrete slab at the Cantiague Park Ice Rink


The area behind the goal set for the next phase of the construction project


Blueprints of the Cantiague Park Ice Rink project are reviewed during construction


The new boards arrive and are set where the ice once stood


Workers get the new boards ready to assemble prior to permanently drilling them into the floor 

The revamping of the Cantiague Park Ice Rink continued, as the crew began bracing the new boards to the refrigerated concrete slab along the straightaways this week. The crew must proceed with caution at this stage of the project, as they tackle the the painstaking task of drilling into the rink's concrete base, avoiding the coolant-filled pipes that run beneath the rink that maintain the freezing rink temperatures. One misplaced bolt or drill hole could mean disaster, the project management team from Becker Arena Products comes to the Cantiague renovation with a wealth of experience.

Becker Arena Products is a Minnesota-based source for rink supplies and equipment that has helped build and support hundreds of facilities worldwide. Click here to read more about Jim Becker, owner and president of Becker Arena Products. For photos and information on some of the Becker crew's past work, click here for a photo-illustrated gallery. 

This past February, the Becker crew took part in the transformation of Camp Randall Stadium, home of the University of Wisconsin Badgers college football team and site of the Culver's Camp Randal Hockey Classic, a men's and women's outdoor hockey double-header held in Madison, Wis. Becker assisted in the change-over of the University of Wisconsin's football playing field into an NCAA-regulation hockey rink, as 80,321 fans braved temperatures in the low-20s to witness the Wisconsin Badgers women's team defeat Bemidji State by a score of 6-1, and the Badgers men's squad defeat Michigan in the nightcap by a score of 3-2. Click here for a photo gallery of the Becker crew's work on this past February's Culver's Camp Randal Hockey Classic.

In addition to anchoring the boards along the penalty box and player's benches side and the spectator's side of the rink, the crew at Cantiague Park were in the process of digging out a two-foot deep trench to be used as a drainage system for the rink overflow. 

Using lasers as guides, the cross-ice red and blue line sections of the new boards were installed and aligned to perfection as past of the latest project progress. The curved sections behind the goals are next to be installed and braced, in addition to the construction of the new player's benches and penalty boxes.

Recently shipped to the construction site as well were huge wooden crates housing the rink's glass. On the spectator's side of the glass, seamless glass will be installed, providing visually-obstruction-free sightlines, while the glass along the player's benches side will be held in place with aluminum brackets. The Nassau County Hockey crew will get a lesson in glass changing from the Becker crew, as the replacement of broken seamless glass is no longer as simple as swapping out an old broken pane for a new pane. Should a single piece of the new seamless glass break, four to five adjacent pieces of glass need to be removed in order to fit the new piece in. Please keep your shots low!

We urge you to keep following the progress of the Cantiague Ice Rink construction onwww.nassaucountyhockey.com as the project passes the halfway mark and heads down the home stretch. We also urge you to check your mail, call Cantiague Park at (516) 571-7009 or e-mail Nassau County Hockey Director Mark LaMarr at   or Stacy Allen at   if you have yet to receive your registration for the 2010-2011 NCHL Season. 

The boards along the spectator's side of Cantiague Park are permanently bolted in as the rink construction continues



A button from the inside of the rink will now allow for player and coach access off the ice by easily opening the doors



A piece of the new boards is set in place behind what will eventually be the goal net



Orange markers guide the crew from Becker Arena Products and mark the area where the refrigerated pipes lie below the concrete surface



A crate full of seamless glass panes awaits assembly



The new plastic coated kickplate at the center ice entrance will minimize skate damage upon entering and exiting the ice surface




The Bobcat digs a two-foot trench that will house the player's bench-side drainage system




The old scoreboard will soon be replaced by a new state-of-the-art unit complete with wireless controller



Crates of glass stand upright on the playing surface, now reduced to refrigerated cement




The rink isn't the only thing getting an overhaul as the steps and spectator areas will be repainted to match the Nassau County Lions blue and orange color scheme




Reduced to rubble, this area will eventually house a new drainage system beneath the home and away players benches and the penalty box area
 

The revamping of the Cantiague Park Ice Rink continued, as the crew began bracing the new boards to the refrigerated concrete slab along the straightaways this week. The crew must proceed with caution at this stage of the project, as they tackle the the painstaking task of drilling into the rink's concrete base, avoiding the coolant-filled pipes that run beneath the rink that maintain the freezing rink temperatures. One misplaced bolt or drill hole could mean disaster, the project management team from Becker Arena Products comes to the Cantiague renovation with a wealth of experience.

Becker Arena Products is a Minnesota-based source for rink supplies and equipment that has helped build and support hundreds of facilities worldwide. Click here to read more about Jim Becker, owner and president of Becker Arena Products. For photos and information on some of the Becker crew's past work, click here for a photo-illustrated gallery. 

This past February, the Becker crew took part in the transformation of Camp Randall Stadium, home of the University of Wisconsin Badgers college football team and site of the Culver's Camp Randal Hockey Classic, a men's and women's outdoor hockey double-header held in Madison, Wis. Becker assisted in the change-over of the University of Wisconsin's football playing field into an NCAA-regulation hockey rink, as 80,321 fans braved temperatures in the low-20s to witness the Wisconsin Badgers women's team defeat Bemidji State by a score of 6-1, and the Badgers men's squad defeat Michigan in the nightcap by a score of 3-2. Click here for a photo gallery of the Becker crew's work on this past February's Culver's Camp Randal Hockey Classic.

In addition to anchoring the boards along the penalty box and player's benches side and the spectator's side of the rink, the crew at Cantiague Park were in the process of digging out a two-foot deep trench to be used as a drainage system for the rink overflow. 

Using lasers as guides, the cross-ice red and blue line sections of the new boards were installed and aligned to perfection as past of the latest project progress. The curved sections behind the goals are next to be installed and braced, in addition to the construction of the new player's benches and penalty boxes.

Recently shipped to the construction site as well were huge wooden crates housing the rink's glass. On the spectator's side of the glass, seamless glass will be installed, providing visually-obstruction-free sightlines, while the glass along the player's benches side will be held in place with aluminum brackets. The Nassau County Hockey crew will get a lesson in glass changing from the Becker crew, as the replacement of broken seamless glass is no longer as simple as swapping out an old broken pane for a new pane. Should a single piece of the new seamless glass break, four to five adjacent pieces of glass need to be removed in order to fit the new piece in. Please keep your shots low!

We urge you to keep following the progress of the Cantiague Ice Rink construction onwww.nassaucountyhockey.com as the project passes the halfway mark and heads down the home stretch. We also urge you to check your mail, call Cantiague Park at (516) 571-7009 or e-mail Nassau County Hockey Director Mark LaMarr at   or Stacy Allen at   if you have yet to receive your registration for the 2010-2011 NCHL Season. 

The boards along the spectator's side of Cantiague Park are permanently bolted in as the rink construction continues



A button from the inside of the rink will now allow for player and coach access off the ice by easily opening the doors



A piece of the new boards is set in place behind what will eventually be the goal net



Orange markers guide the crew from Becker Arena Products and mark the area where the refrigerated pipes lie below the concrete surface



A crate full of seamless glass panes awaits assembly



The new plastic coated kickplate at the center ice entrance will minimize skate damage upon entering and exiting the ice surface




The Bobcat digs a two-foot trench that will house the player's bench-side drainage system




The old scoreboard will soon be replaced by a new state-of-the-art unit complete with wireless controller



Crates of glass stand upright on the playing surface, now reduced to refrigerated cement




The rink isn't the only thing getting an overhaul as the steps and spectator areas will be repainted to match the Nassau County Lions blue and orange color scheme




Reduced to rubble, this area will eventually house a new drainage system beneath the home and away players benches and the penalty box area
 

Renovation on the Cantaigue Park Ice Rink took another step toward completion this week as a majority of the board sections were bolted into place and the crew began the task of adding the glass around the rink.

Glass on the spectator's side of the rink is what is called "seamless glass," glass that permits a relatively unobstructed view of the on-ice action. The glass panels are constructed of thick, tempered glass, and is supported side-by-side in a groove along the top of the boards. The glass panels are clipped together at their top corners by brackets and are designed for a virtually unobstructed view of the ice surface.

Most of the rink is now fully assembled, with a section near the zamboni door not yet set as construction continues in that area. The crew was working on digging a trench to accommodate a drainage system to move overflowing water from the rink to outside of the arena.

In addition to the drains, the crew was set to work on installing pipes to bring drinking water directly to the player's benches. The trench seen in the photos below will also house an electrical system that will operate the arena scoreboard. Game officials and scoreboard operators will now be housed on the player's side of the arena, between the home and visitor penalty box area.

The next step in the project involves leveling the gravel in the area on the zamboni door side of the rink. Concrete will then be poured, leveled and must dry in order for the crew to continue anchoring the boards around the arena.

Once the boards are set, the final panes of glass will be set in place, and then the process of re-creating the ice surface will begin.

If you've missed any installments in this series on the Cantiague Park Ice Rink renovation, click on the "Ice Rink Project" tab in the upper left hand side of this page and click on Step One, Step Two or Step Three and continue to follow updates on the project as it heads down the home stretch toward completion onwww.nassaucountyhockey.com.
 

The dig in front of the zamboni doors area will include a drainage system, electric to the scoreboard and running water to the player's benches



The new boards in the process of being constructed by the Becker Arena crew




A close up of the unobstructed, crystal-clear view from the spectator's side and the new seamless portion of the glass



The view from the spectator's side of the rink and a look through the new seamless glass



A look at the glass-enclosed penalty box area and official scorer's area near the center ice red line



Workers attach the outer portion of the new Cantiague Ice Rink boards



Painted guides show the crew where the pipes will be set for the new Cantiague drainage system on the zamboni side of the ice



The glass panes are removed from their wooden crates and are ready to be placed atop the boards



The trench stretches outside the rink area and will house the pipes and drainage system



Work continues along the back of the net area



This trench will run beneath the player's benches and penalty box area and will feature running water to the player's benches




Just two weeks into the Cantiague Ice Rink Renovation, and the playing surface is nearly cleared and the rink is nearly ready to be prepped for ice once again
 

As the Cantiague Park Ice Rink project nears a month since its start, the rink boards and dasher boards are 80 percent constructed, the glass around the boards, both the seamless panes on the spectator's side and the panes held in by aluminum brackets are up, as the only major portion of the project that remains is the construction of the drainage systems. The crew has already dug out a two-foot deep trench that will house drainage pipes, electrical wires to operate the new scoreboard, in addition to accommodating the pipes that will run fresh water to the home and away benches. 

As the crew worked on leveling the area near the zamboni door, the main drain near the zamboni entrance was installed. On Wednesday, all of the pipes were set in the ground as the concrete was poured and leveled. Once the concrete is given a few days to settle and dry, the remainder of the boards will be installed and permanently drilled into the new concrete and the glass will be installed. 

If you have not been following the progress of the project, click on the "Ice Rink Project" link in the upper left-hand corner of this page to track the Cantiague Ice Rink renovation from the beginning and check back here atwww.nassaucountyhockey.com to watch as the project comes to an end and the rink is re-opened.

If you have yet to receive registration materials for the upcoming NCHL season or if you have any questions about the Nassau County Hockey program, call (516) 571-7009, e-mail Stacy Allen at   or Mark LaMarr at  .

A close up of the bracket that holds together sections of the seamless glass 




The backing on the exterior of the new Cantiague Ice Rink boards is now fully installed



 The drain near the zamboni door is set before its permanently encased in concrete



 Not much of the glass remains in its shipping crates as only a small portion of the rink remains un-constructed



 While the interior of the rink was progressing as planned, Mother Nature cross-checked the entrance of Cantiague Park after Sunday's storm with several downed trees on the park grounds



 Now a month into the project, the Cantiague Ice Rink facelift quickly nears completion



The boards are now up and the yellow dasher is installed in the area that will soon house the goal crease



 Was it a tornado? Who knows what it was, but here is another angle of the storm damaged area hit by high winds at Cantiague on Sunday



The entire zamboni entrance/exit area is now dug up as pipes are set for the concrete that will arrive this Wednesday



A better look through the seamless glass providing an unobstructed view of the on-ice action from the spectator's side of the rink



The pipe and drainage system will soon be covered in thick concrete and eventually run beneath the players benches and official scorer's area



The drainage system beneath the home and visitor's benches has been set



The drain that will eventually lie right outside the zamboni entrance/exit door



The drainage pipes, now encased in concrete, lead to the exterior of the Cantiague Park Ice Rink



Pipes rise from what will eventually house not only electric to the scorer's area, but running water to the home and away player's benches



The stretch of area that'll be the site of the players benches and scorer's areas is now filled in with wet cement



The crew smoothed and leveled the concrete in the zamboni door area



And now, its just a waiting game as the concrete must settle and solidify before the crew can anchor the last section of boards into the Cantiague Park Ice Rink

So, its been a while since the last update a few weeks back, but that doesn't mean the project isn't progressing as planned. We last left off with most of the boards and glass being up as the crew played the waiting game as an area of concrete needed to dry in order for the final section of boards to be installed in the zamboni door area.

Currently, the entire rink (boards and glass) has been constructed. The crew is working feverishly as they tweak small things, but the report is that everything is going as planned and the rink is just about ready to begin the process of building up the ice surface for the 2010-2011 hockey and skating seasons. The benches have been assembled, the penalty boxes have been formed and the scorer's box, which will now sit between the home and visitor penalty boxes, has been completed. The netting has been raised to the rafters to prevent pucks from exiting the playing area, the full boards and dashers have been bolted in place, and the backing has been screwed to the outer section of the boards. 

Around the arena, a few Nassau County Hockey "artifacts" have been permanently "frozen in time." For example, an old County travel jersey has a new home as it has been placed in an undisclosed area within the boards. Think along the lines of the Boston Red Sox fan who worked on a construction site known as the new Yankee Stadium. Back in 2008, as the new Yankee Stadium was being constructed in the Bronx, a worker and die hard Red Sox fan decided to embed a piece of his own team forever in what would be the future Yankee Stadium. He buried a David Ortiz jersey in the foundation of the new Stadium in hopes of jinxing the Yankees in the future. Two co-workers ratted the Red Sox fan out, and in a few days, the site was excavated, the jersey was removed and the "Curse of the Sox" was not going to happen in the Bronx. The installing of Nassau County artifacts will hopefully bring good luck and fortune to the boys from Nassau County, and send curious players on a hunt for these items throughout the arena. 

And did we ever mention lights? Indeed, the once dimly lit Cantiague Park Ice Rink will now be flooded with 101 brand new, eco-friendly, energy conserving light fixtures that are in the process of being raised to the Cantiague rafters and replacing the old lighting fixtures. Each of the new fixtures will contain four high power fluorescent bulbs, that will be protected with a metal cage to prevent damage from pucks exiting the play area. 

The rink is now just about set to have the ice once again created. The pipes beneath the concrete slab that maintains the ice surface have been turned on once again and the process is begins with the freezing of the rink floor. The second step will involve applying a thin layer of water that'll begin to serve as the initial base layer of the ice. That layer will then be coated with a white power and spread evenly throughout. After this layer is established, the careful process of laying down the blue lines, red lines, goal creases, faceoff dots, etc. will take place. Each marking on the ice is carefully measured and placed according to the architect's blueprints as the playing surface begins to really take shape. After that, additional layers of water are sprayed on by the zamboni and the ice surface is finalized and prepped for the start of hockey and skating once again. 

​
The new home bench in the process of being assembled





The new drainage system sits outside the zamboni doors





The bench area, penalty boxes and scorer's booth a work in progress





A completed penalty box open for business





Out with the old and in with the new...one of the old light fixtures is removed from the Cantiague ceiling






A shot from high above the arena at center ice shows the project near completion







One of the new lighting fixtures floods the arena with light






The concrete surface is now frozen as the area is prepped for a brand new ice surface






Let there be light!






Workers remove an old lighting fixture and install one of the 101 new light boxes






The old scoreboard sits and awaits a new home






New lighting units are built, wired and await being raised to the Cantiague rafters






One of the new heating units that'll heat the spectators area during games






The rubber mats on the floor are cleaned and set back in place as the rink renovation inches toward final completion

 

The rink renovation of Cantiague Park is nearing final completion. As the fall begins and the hockey season begins, the new and improved Cantiague Park Ice Rink is ready for action. The two-month long project is in its very final stages, as the ice is being built up and is prepped for hockey action beginning the weekend of Sept. 11th. Do yourself a favor and stop by and take a look at the final project. Many thanks to all who had a part in this project and all those who have played a role in making the renovation of the Cantiague Park Ice Rink a reality.
 

The final preparations are made to the Cantiague ice surface as the lines are laid down and prepped for the ice





The red and blue lines are the first to be applied to the ice surface




The goal creases are measured and the red lines are applied and frozen to the ice surface




The birth of a ice hockey goal crease




The goal crease and faceoff circles are formed on the Cantiague Ice Rink




New banners to be raised to the Cantiague Park rafters




One complete hand-painted goal crease 




The lines and paint are sealed into the ice surface with a mist of sprayed water 




The Nassau County Lion artwork prior to being placed on the ice surface




The ice surface being built up after all the ice markers and artwork have been set




The new scoreboard makes its Cantiague Park debut



The control console for the new scoreboard system




The zamboni makes its passes, leaving behind layers of water and building up the Cantiague ice surface