Newtown Youth Academy weighing addition of ice arena

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.  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.