One of those facilities is Happy Acres Park in Blaine, which is a hub for hockey and skating. “This is our premier ice skating facility,” said Nate Monahan, Blaine’s Recreation Manager.
Despite mild weather earlier this month, the Blaine Parks and Rec Department is working hard to keep the rinks open.
“We were closed the last couple of days because of the rain and warm temperatures,” Monahan said. “We are back open today, February 16th. We are hoping to keep the rinks open through February 28th if mother nature cooperates.”
Of course, fluctuating Minnesota weather is hard to predict. Keeping ice in good skating condition can be a challenge.
“It is definitely day to day,” Monahan said. “Our guys are always out each day if there’s no snowfall, to maintain. We do have Zambonis at a couple of our rinks here in Blaine which definitely helps out to maintain and keep up on the rinks even in the warm temperatures.”
Illuminated ice
While most of us want the weather to heat up, those who like to skate want just the opposite. Their goal is to get perfect ice.
“Anything under 30 degrees and cloudy,” Monahan said. “Actually just to keep the ice maintained and frozen, and in good condition for the kids to skate from day to day.”
The bottom line is, recent rains did not wash away the skating season for good.
“We did have a good hard freeze last night, because of the single digit temperatures,” Monahan said. “Yes all of our rinks are back open and the conditions are good.”
Happy Acres even has a new twist – ice lights on the blue lines and red lines on the hockey rinks.
Said Monahan: “At night they illuminate the ice.”
In most years rinks open up in Blaine before Christmas and shut down at the end of February. The high temps for Saturday through Monday are forecasted to be above freezing.
