Medford will maintain control over LoConte Rink after the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) announced earlier this month that several area ice skating rinks would remain under local, public oversight.

The agency awarded Medford an extension of up to 10 years to manage and operate LoConte Rink, ending worries among local officials that the rink would fall into the hands of a private, for-profit manager.

The DCR also announced that the cities of Somerville and Everett would maintain control of Veterans Memorial and Allied Veterans Memorial rinks, respectively; and that the nonprofit group Friends of the Flynn Rink would continue running Flynn Rink, located in Medford near the Melrose line.

In Quincy, Michael O’Toole, LLC kept control of the Shea Memorial Rink.

“Ultimately, the DCR did their due diligence and made sure they realized what the effect was on the hosting communities that are running their facilities,” said George Scarpelli, program developer in Somerville’s Recreation Department and a member of Medford’s City Council. “What you saw, who else went after those locations, individual companies that would have taken care of their [own] programs.”

DCR re-upped the contracts of municipal and nonprofit managers despite receiving bids from private entities for all five of the aforementioned rinks.

Shamrock Rink Management, the company of Boston Shamrocks owner Bob Rotondo, bid unsuccessfully for the Flynn, LoConte and Veterans Memorial rinks.

Frost Realty, which manages several rinks in Greater Boston and partners with the Valley Hockey League, bid for the Allied Veterans and Shea Memorial rinks.

“The management of state-owned ice skating rinks across the commonwealth remains a high priority for the Department of Conservation and Recreation,” DCR Commissioner Leo Roy told Wicked Local in a statement, “and we are pleased to continue to work with our current rink partners to provide exceptional recreational opportunities for people of all abilities to enjoy.”

Public vs. private management

Before the announcement, elected officials had worried the DCR might favor private bidders after a request for proposals (RFP) issued in February did not guarantee ice-time priority for public and nonprofit groups.

In recent years, DCR has compensated for a shrinking budget by handing management of numerous state-owned rinks to private companies, municipal governments and nonprofit groups.

A 2015 report by the Boston Globe found that privately managed rinks offer significantly less public ice time than state-run rinks.

With the bidding process underway in early March, several area mayors – Medford’s Stephanie M. Burke, Melrose’s Rob Dolan, Somerville’s Joe Curtatone and Revere’s Brian Arrigo – sent a letter to the DCR requesting immediate review and withdrawal of the RFP.

The Metro Mayors Coalition, made up of 14 mayors in Greater Boston and chaired by Curtatone, also supported the letter.

And on March 15, Dolan, state Reps. Michael Day and Paul Brodeur, state Sen. Jason Lewis and Friends of the Flynn Rink President Denis O’Donnell pleaded their case to Roy and State Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matthew Beaton.

Their advocacy, it seems, paid off.

“DCR and [Beaton] listened to our concerns and made sure that the RFP was going to more directly include the interests of public access and use of what is a terrific recreational facility,” Brodeur said. “I think this is a case where the process worked.”

To avoid a similar scare in the future, Scarpelli said he hopes DCR engages the public/nonprofit groups managing the rinks earlier in the process.

“I think there’s got to be a dialogue between the organizations way before,” he said. “The DCR itself just went through a major overhaul with employees and leaders, and we’re seeing that as we speak. It’s such a turnover that it’s frightening. That’s always going to be a problem.

“I’m glad they did their homework to make sure that the kids benefit in the end,” Scarpelli added.