There is black ice on Wood Creek Pond, as these words are being written. There is black ice on Tobey Pond and Doolittle and Seldom Seen. But there is no skatable ice on the town rink by the ball field.

This is due to a combination of factors, according to Schuyler Thomson, who agreed to coordinate efforts on behalf of the town to produce a skating surface. Yes, someone took a joyride over the rink area in a truck, after doing donuts in the parking lot. But mostly it’s been the weather—an eight-inch snowfall, a partial thaw, and a hard freeze—which have left the surface ridged and lumpy.

For a brief moment, before the snowfall but after a string of bitter January days, the shallow basin held wonderful smooth ice. And though the snow quickly came to cover it over, there were those who went out with their shovels and cleared the snow away and made a track around the rink and skated giddily in circles.

Then came the anonymous joyrider to undo their work and wreck their fun. Troop B in Canaan was alerted, and they have agreed to step up surveillance of the area.

First Selectman Matt Riiska is behind the effort to have a skating rink at the ballfield. “It’s still in the works,” says Riiska. He has ordered signs and had the streetlamp repaired and spoken to the Public Works Department about possibly clearing the ice after snowfalls with the town’s Bobcat utility vehicle.

“Maybe it takes more than a year to get something like this up and running,” says Thomson.

The organizers of Winter WIN, which is scheduled for Feb. 24 and 25, are certainly hoping that skating at the ball field will be one of the available activities.