Rockland Lake in Valley Cottage, where dozens of companies once harvested pure, frozen water and trucked blocks of it downriver to hotels and to those who owned iceboxes, is bringing back its frozen appeal with an aesthetic twist.
When the Knickerbocker Ice Festival opens the weekend of Jan. 23-24, Rockland Lake native Robert Patalano will be among the sculptors vying in an ice-carving competition, along with dozens of other vendors and artists who will set up along the trail that circles the lake for the two day event.
Originally trained in the restaurant business since age 13, Patalano would watch through a crack in the door as Rockland Lake Manor”™s chef created ornate designs out of blocks of ice. Patalano was fascinated, but the chef was not eager to share his carving secrets.
“He coveted his skill and he wouldn”™t show me how to do it, no matter how much I begged,” said Patalano. “But one day, he was out and the restaurant needed a sculpture. My opportunity arrived. Unfortunately, the chef didn”™t leave his tools behind, so I had to use a meat cleaver. I created a martini glass for Father”™s Day brunch and I was hooked.”
It was at Suffern”™s Holiday Inn that Patalano shattered the ice ceiling. “The chef, who made two sculptures a week, was gone and they needed a sculptor. I was able to honestly say I had done it and landed the job.”
Eventually, Patalano sharpened his ice-sculpting skills and built a book of business that kept him working two full-time jobs. “I had 30-40 customers who wanted sculptures in addition to my chef”™s job. It came time to make a decision. Which career would I follow? I took the leap of faith and went into business for myself, starting the Rockland Lake Ice Company in 1996.”
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Patalano”™s customer base is Rockland, Westchester and Bergen County, N.J. His business, along with many others, has had a meltdown. “I”™m 50 percent off since the recession hit,” said Patalano. “It”™s been tough on everyone. I don”™t know how other people are making it because every day is a challenge. We all just hope business picks up.”
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But despite the shadow of the recession, Patalano”™s efforts to get Rockland Lake Park attention with the help of Tim Englert.
Englert is another history buff who jogged the lake”™s trail and wanted to know more about its history when he moved to Rockland Lake in 2000. He eventually tracked down Patalano and called him. “It was the call I waited 15 years for,” said Patalano. Between Patalano”™s knowledge of the area and Englert”™s passion for history, they formed a fast friendship. “It turns out the stone wall that runs along the side of the lake is the finest example of an existing foundation for an icehouse left intact in the U.S.,” said Englert, who now works for the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. “I became as keen as Rob about bringing the history of the lake to residents and surrounding communities and trying to bring back tourism and history to the park.”
“The Rockland Business Association was a tremendous help to us when we first came up with the idea of having a winter festival here,” said Patalano. “I can”™t tell you how much support they gave us ”“ not just in time, but in getting the word out and helping us find sponsors. Five-hundred people turned out in 2008, our first year, and we felt it was a rousing success, considering it was the middle of winter. The RBA has been great supporter throughout and so are all its members.”
The Festival”™s big break came in 2009, when the Palisades Park Commission chose it for the opening ceremony of the state”™s quadricentennial celebrations and provided funding for many of the activities. Patalano”™s contribution was a 3,500-poundsculpture of the Half Moon that took him nearly three weeks to create.
“I didn”™t see the finished product myself until everyone else did,” said the sculptor. “I worked in sections, with each section fitted together and covered as I went along. When it was unveiled, I was floored.” So were nearly 20,000 visitors the park attracted for the quadricentennial kickoff. “It was amazing to see the parking lot filled to the brim in the dead of winter,” said Patalano. “It was a dream realized, one we want to keep building on.”
This year, the Knickerbocker Ice Festival has a core group of businesses that have donated needed funding and several others have donated in-kind services that would cost a small fortune for the budding festival. “For example, DHS is lending us its tents again, the same ones used in the Arctic circle,” said Patalano. “There will be all kinds of indoor and outdoor festivities, a whole section on ”˜green”™ technology and of course, my favorite, the ice sculpting competition.”
Patalano has high hopes for the Knickerbocker Ice Festival. “There are many around the country, but none here in the region,” he said. “It”™s a great winter attraction, and we”™ve got the history, a beautiful lake and park and everything we need to make this a real destination.
“All the local hotels are pitching in, offering discounted rates to visitors, and we”™ll have a shuttle bus to the Palisades Mall that”™s just a few minutes away,” he said. “We may never reach the heights of some of the other well-known festivals, but there”™s no reason not to go for the gold ring.”
