I used to ice skate and many of us who lived near Pat’s Pond in Boothbay Harbor have lots of great memories of daytime hockey matches and nighttime bonfires (and playing “Wolves and Sheep,” where teams would collect wolves if you were tagged and the sheep would try evade a tag while trying to skate to the other end of the pond).

The sad news this week is that the Boothbay Ice Rink won’t be set up this winter due to the changing climate as temperatures continue to rise during December, January and February, the prime skating months. Even the local ponds (Appalachee, etc.) have been susceptible to the climate and don’t freeze enough for skating.

It was a good run as Jeanne Tonon, Kevin Anthony, the Conlin family, Eric Marden and others got the rink started and many volunteers helped set it up, cleared off the snow, kept it in good shape, and broke it down every spring. I remember writing about its first year and was slightly amazed at the turnout of kids and adults using the facility at the Boothbay Fire Station.

As Anthony and the Ice Rink Committee have suggested over the years, a roofed structure on Clifford Playground would improve the chances for skating and the facility could be used year-round for other purposes. We hope the town and those involved with the Clifford Playground revamping strongly consider building an open air, roofed structure so the youth of our region can enjoy skating, including a few rounds of “Wolves and Sheep” and hockey games.

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Three cheers to Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce for its Boothbay Lights work; to the residents of East Boothbay for telling it “like it is” to Aqua Ventus representatives during the recent meetings; and to the New England Patriots for defeating the Buffalo Bills on Monday night to improve to 9-4!