INNISFAIL – In spite of the sudden deep chill town staff has been working feverishly to finally have all four outdoor skating surfaces ready for public use.
Ken Kowalchuk, manager of communications and marketing for the Town of Innisfail, told the Albertan on Jan. 9 that town staff has already begun to create a solid base on all four skating surfaces but due to the arrival of extreme cold weather in the second week of January they may have to hold off flooding for a couple of days.
“We should be able to start flooding again after January 15 if the temperatures rise above the -20 degree mark,” said Kowalchuk. “The base is currently about an inch thick, so we’ll continue to add to that in the coming weeks.”
The four outdoor skating surfaces include the boarded public skating rink at the Napoleon Park Sports Field behind the Innisfail Twin Arena, which was constructed in 2022 and is 25 metres east of the new all-inclusive playground.
Also at Napoleon Park Sports Field is an outdoor figure-eight skating surface west of the arena on the soccer/football fields, southwest of the boarded outdoor rink.
“Last year was actually just had a circular track, and this year they've increased the size of it, and turned it into a figure-eight configuration,” said Kowalchuk.
Elsewhere in town is the longstanding boarded outdoor rink at 54th Avenue and 37th Street, and the outdoor skating surface at Centennial Park.
This year’s opening of the town’s outdoor skating surfaces was delayed due to the unseasonably warm temperatures in November and December.
“Those temperatures finally went down last week,” said Kowalchuk. “They (staff) have been proceeding with flooding the surface. They have a base, but it's not a great base at this point.
“It's probably about an inch, maybe an inch and a half thick,” he added. “It's not as thick as we'd like it to be at this point but it's a good start.”
Kowalchuk noted the challenges town staff has with outdoor skating surfaces when temperatures dip to -20 C.
“They actually have to stop with the flooding,” said Kowalchuk. “As the water is hitting the ice surface, it cracks, sort of pops as it adheres to the new surface, so it has to be around that -20 degree mark for them to go out and get a good flooding.”
However, the good news about ice surface maintenance this year is that the town has a weekend crew, said Kowalchuk.
“In the past we've only been doing the flooding during the weekdays,” he said. “Now with the weekend crew so they'll be able to flood at least in the morning to put another coat on.”
