While The Ellen Show made a generous offer of Caribbean cruises to the four Wellesley fire department members who appeared on the program Tuesday for saving Crosby the dog from the icy Charles River, the state’s conflict of interest law will prevent the firefighters from taking Ellen up on those gifts because they exceed $50 in value. They can keep the souvenir vests, though.

So, it looks like the department members will be limited to cruising around the Charles and maybe Lake Waban or Morses Pond for now, but it was nice for them all to get well-deserved national recognition in addition to our everyday gratitude for their efforts…

(Oh, and the Wellesley Police Department has released some new photos of the dog rescue.)

The next thing to thank the firefighters for: They’ll be helping to set up the Recreation Department’s outdoor skating rinks on Friday.

Wellesley will soon have 3 outdoor public skating rinks, with hopes that cold weather over the weekend will freeze them enough to allow skating next week. The rinks will go up on Friday where the outdoor basketball court/parking lot used to be across from the high school and near the track and football field.

Two rectangular rinks will be for skating and hockey, while a third smaller rink will be for little kids.

One nice feature is that parking lights at the site will allow for evening skating. That’s an amenity that wasn’t available last winter when the rinks were at Phillips Park, according to the Recreation Commission’s Andy Wrobel.

The rinks are being funded through business sponsorships, and the Recreation Commission’s Steve Burtt is heading up that effort.

The Wellesley Fire Department will be on hand Friday to fill up the rinks: “The safest of skating is on a rink!” says Fire Chief Rick DeLorie.