AUBURN — A bickering and divided City Council didn’t have the votes Monday night to bond the money needed to expand the Ingersoll Ice Arena.

Councilors needed five votes to approve borrowing $454,000 for a retrofit at the arena. With only six councilors able to vote — the seventh seat remained vacant until later in the meeting — the arena project needed a near unanimous five votes to proceed.

With councilors Ray Berube and Dan Herrick opposing the bond, supporters only had four votes.

Councilor Mike Farrell, a supporter of the ice arena, was angered by the council’s decision.

“I applaud the Ingersoll staff that presented here tonight,” Farrell said. “I would urge you now to just drop it. This board tonight made a decision without all of the facts. I would honestly encourage you to go no further.”

The plan was first discussed in July, and staff believed that the arena’s enterprise fund had a $763,000 fund balance at that time. City Manager Glenn Aho reported that Finance Department staff had mistaken the arena’s total assets for cash assets. The $763,000 included about $110,000 in liquid cash but also listed the assets controlled by the ice arena. That included cash, but also the land, building and machinery inside the building.

Plans call for $454,000 worth of work at the arena. That included $404,000 to add a second floor with meeting spaces, a warm area for spectators to watch games and bigger locker rooms and another $50,000 for new bleachers.

The arena is home ice for Auburn’s Edward Little High School, and Turner’s Leavitt Area High School and the combined Gray/New Gloucester and Poland high school hockey team.

It’s also used by adult leagues and youth hockey programs.

Aho said he the city could include the arena project in the municipal bond package, increasing the total borrowing from $4.5 million to $4.9 million. The city could also loan the arena money from the city’s fund balances or from unallocated bonded money from other projects.

Recreation Department Director Ravi Sharma told councilors that the bond money would be repaid with arena revenues, not with property taxes.

But councilors said it was too expensive. Councilor Herrick urged staff to pursue a smaller project, getting rid of the warming room, for example.

“I know when I go into an ice arena, I expect to be cold,” Herrick said. He also urged arena promoters to get more bids.

“I just don’t feel comfortable with the way this whole thing has unraveled,” Herrick said. “There needs to be better planning, there needs to better announcements and better planning before I can put my name on it.”

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