Black Ice Hockey Cuts Another Check to Concord

In what was hailed as a prime example of a successful public-private partnership in the city of Concord, organizers of the wrote a check to the city of Concord for $14,000 at the board's Aug. 13, meeting.

City Manager announced that the original plan for the check was to have it be combined with last year’s gift, for a total of about $22,000, with the funds going towards designing a new skate house for . However, he said, H.L. Turner Group had decided to donate design services to the city for the skate house. This donation, he said, would allow the city to take the $22,000 and put it into a reserve account for future construction costs towards a new facility.

, the director of the , introduced Chris Brown of the Black Ice Hockey Committee, and Gerry Blanchett of H.L. Turner, and thanked them both for supporting the effort and the department.

“This (money) is above and beyond paying all the city bills,” Gill said, including police details and fees.

Brown said even with the “tropical conditions” earlier this year, the event was a success.

“We got through,” he said. “Sponsors and teams were able to get the exposure they wanted and teams were able to get to play.”

Brown said if the weather is better next year, he hoped that more money would be raised.

Gill said Blanchett’s company had put together a sketch last year of a new skate house, which was consistent with the 2004 master plan, and this year, planned on donating services to design the building.

Blanchett, who is the senior vice president of architectural and engineering services at Turner, said while the company did work all over the Northeast, they were “proud to be members of the community here in the city of Concord.” He noted that employees and principals supported the idea of supporting hockey, skating, and the city’s recreation department.

“We really, really appreciate being members of this community,” he said.