A proposal to add an ice arena to the Newtown Youth Academy Sports & Fitness Center will be heard by town planning and zoning boards in the coming months. Â If Newtown’s boards give the project approval early this summer, as developers hope, the ice arena could be operational by January 2019.
The arena as currently planned would include NHL-sized skating surface ”“ 200 feet by 85 feet, with a corner radius of 28 feet ”“ and five curling lanes. NYA founder and former owner Peter D”™Amico, former NHL player Bob Crawford and Crawford”™s co-owner and operator of skating rinks Alan Lazowski are behind the project, expected to cost $4-5 million to develop.
The ice arena likely would be used as the home ice for Newtown High School”™s hockey team, which currently uses the Danbury Ice Arena for home games. Crawford and
Lazowski”™s other ice facilities include Champions Skating Center in Cromwell, International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury, and the Bushnell Park skating rink in Hartford.
Newtown-based Claris Construction Inc., which built the original sports complex, is expected to be contracted for the addition.