Just waiting for ice
Just waiting for ice
By STU MERRY
It’s been nearly two years since the indoor ice skating rink collapsed under the weight of heavy snow. It looks like it’s going to be a while longer before skaters can lace up the blades and hit the ice.
Park board maintenance supervisor Sandy Crawford said she hopes to have the facility open by Christmas break. But there’s plenty of work that remains. Plans are to flood the outside rink in the near future.
What’s the holdup? It’s a combination of things – most notably an empty warming house. The rink also has to be flooded.
But there are other things that should be addressed. Going through the building Monday, Crawford said there’s a laundry list of things that should receive attention before the city can turn over the building to the park board.
Wafer board on the walls is already warping – and there’s no moisture from the ice. Snow filtered into the building from this past weekend’s snow. There are areas along the bottom of the building where water could flow outside.
Crawford said she was under the impression a rubber membrane would be installed along the perimeter of the concrete rink surface. The only edging is a 1x10 untreated pine board that, once the ice melts, could begin deteriorating.
If pucks are flipped over the treated wood surrounding the rink, there’s no top piece to keep the discs from falling behind the boards, making them irretrievable.
Walk-in doors already leak moisture, she noted.
The walls of the warming house are sheeted with wafer board. In some areas, the sheeting is pieced in. In other areas, sheeting is horizontal. On other walls, the sheeting is vertical and seams don’t line up. There are gaps at the top of the sheeting, she pointed out.
