WESTFIELD – Amelia Park employees held a small tour on Thursday morning showing several upgrades that have been made in the arena’s facility
The work inside the building started on May 1st as Amelia Park just opened back up on June 1st. This marked the first time in three years that the park was closed for a period of time.
Executive Director of Amelia Park, Carole Appleton, discussed throughout the tour about the several upgrades that were made in that month span.
A key improvement to the facility was the new roof that was put in place by Tech Roofing and replacing the old roof.
“It was a matter of necessity, the roof is over 15 years old and was no longer under warranty,” said Russ Kanzinger, a member of the board of directors at Amelia Park.
A $25,000 grant was given to the board for the new roof by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. The Foundation’s Senior program officer Sheila Toto and Communications manager Hope Tremblay were present for the tour and pleased to have assisted on the project.
“The roofs are very important to buildings so it’s really great to see that because of the roof they’re allowed to carry on their programming,” said Toto.
The total cost of the roof came to roughly $175,000.
Amelia Park tour of facility, June 9th
Toto and Tremblay were also excited to see all of the other improvements that Amelia park has made.
“They’ve made such incredible improvement to the lighting and the structure overall,” said Toto. “It’s nice to see the fruits of all that labor come together,” said Tremblay.
The grant by the foundation also helped with the cost of the low-emission ceiling that was installed by Westfield Gas & Electric for $68,000. LED lighting in the parking lot and the outdoor rink for around $64,000 were also part of the grant.
Installing the low emission ceiling brought a unique yet successful aspect to the upgrades of Amelia Park.
“It is quite an interesting phenomenon that happens,” said Kanzinger. “The air is not being changed.”
The ceiling also has had a strong reputation for saving energy.
“We know that the low e-ceiling is generally an industry standard of 25-30%, which is obviously huge,” said Appleton.
The LED lighting has the expectations of adding another 20% in savings for the facility which will then give the park the hopes that the utility bill can significantly decrease during the three consecutive months of December, January, and February, when the bill is relatively the highest.
As the arena is host to hockey games of the collegiate, high school, and youth levels as well as summer camps, clinics, leagues, and private rentals, the locker rooms were another area of concern.
Fresh coats of paint were added in all four of the locker rooms. Every shower and bathroom stall in the locker rooms were also made to be handicap accessible.
New blooms in the 1.3 acres of Amelia Garden were put in as well as stonework and mulching.
Wish an estimate of 500,000 people a year in total that visit the park, Appleton wanted to maintain the legacy that Westfield philanthropist Albert Ferst started at the park.
“It’s truly really exciting for me,” said Appleton. “Mr. Ferst left us a very special gift as well as Mrs. Ferst and we want to make sure that it continues to be that way for years to come.”
