SUNDRE — The municipality is for the second year in a row anticipating an early opening at the Sundre Arena this season.
While the ice was prior to 2021 not usually ready for local user groups until October, town officials opted last year to power up the ice plant sooner so the town crew could begin flooding the concrete surface earlier.
That approach was enthusiastically embraced by local organizations such as the Sundre Minor Hockey Association, which in the past would have no other option but to book a couple of weeks’ worth of ice time out of town for early season practices.
So, the municipality has decided to try and repeat last year’s success.
“The plant started up yesterday,” Sue Nelson, manager of community services department, told the Albertan on Wednesday, Sept. 7.
Nelson added she was optimistic about the possibility of getting a crew in the arena before the end of last week to start flooding the first layers of ice ahead of the planned opening date of Monday, Sept. 19.
In anticipation of the opening day, several user groups have already reserved slots on the schedule, she said.
“Minor hockey, rec hockey and figure skating have booked times for that week,” she said.
“All the adult teams are coming back, but they have not yet booked ice for those (first) couple weeks. But they do plan on booking some time just to get back on ice because they’ve been off for two years. So, they just want to get on there and get their legs back underneath them.”
Last year’s first attempt at preparing the ice sooner than usual “went really well,” she said.
“The weather outside was still a little bit warm, so we did have a little bit of raining inside the building,” she said. “And I’m guessing that’s going to happen again this year, too. We’ll have to wait and see – every season’s different, right?”
And as for the outdoor skating rink located a little further west down Second Avenue NW along the south side of the road across the parking lot from the Aquaplex and Sundre Curling Rink, Nelson said efforts to prepare the ground will also soon be getting underway.
“We’re planning on getting the outdoor rink all set up and ready to go before the frost comes so that we can hopefully get a little bit more of a head start by soaking the ground in,” she said.
While safely opening the outdoor rink to the public hinges largely on weather conditions, Nelson said getting some moisture into the ground sooner as well as mounting the collapsible plastic panels prior to any snowfall should later facilitate the effort to prepare the ice.
“That’s our goal for the outdoor rink for this year, is to hopefully have it up and running before the Christmas break,” she said.
