05-15-2017 Park Board Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lino Lakes Parks and Recreation Department l 600 Town Center Parkway CITY O F Lino Lakes, MN 55014 N KE (651) 982-2440 Fax (651) 982-2439 www.ci.lino-lakes.mn.us Date: 3/3/ 17 To: Rick DeGardner, Public Services Director i From : Brian Hronski, Recreation Program Supervisor Subject: Final 2016- 17 Warming House Report I The 2016- 17 warming house and skating season got off to a fast start by us being able to open on December 19th. We continued our good fortunes by staying open over the holiday break which has not always happened in recent years . Unfortunately warm temperatures in January and February ended the early hope of having a good skating season by making it one of the worst seasons on record. We closed for the season on February 16°i which made for one of the earliest closing dates in recent memory. We were closed a total of eighteen days this season and that was the most we've ever had in a skating season . Last year we were closed four total days so needless to say we had a terrible 2016/ 17 season. Once the warm temperatures arrived we never had any stretches of cold ice making weather. The bulk of our season took place between mid-December — mid January. All of the rink closing days were either due to warm temperatures in the high 30 's and 40 ' s or poor ice conditions . As in past years the Centennial Hockey Association used our rinks for their youth hockey practices. As was the case last year we saw a decline in the number of youth teams using our rinks this year. I know the Centennial hockey association still has the same number of teams as in past seasons so it' s possible there is more indoor ice available for practice. Joe Gratz who is the outdoor ice coordinator for CYHA was in communication with me prior to the season and did a nice job getting me schedules in a timely fashion. This year' s biggest trend was Birch Park returning back to a more heavily used site. I attribute this to the new housing development creating more traffic in and around of Birch Park. We saw a big increase in the number of hourly skaters as our average skaters per hour improved by 3 . 15 . City Hall Park was down by almost a skater and a half per hour and Sunrise Park was slightly down this year by dropping to 0 . 8 skaters per hour. Overall for the season we were up almost a skater/hour over last year. Sunrise Park remains our busiest and most used skating rink by averaging almost 15 skaters per hour. No reported accidents occurred at the rinks this winter so that was one of major highlights of the season . We had six returning attendants and two new staff were hired to round out team to eight total . Overall I was pleased with how things shaped out this season minus not being open enough days . In summary we started the season off by opening in mid-December and staying open with quality ice over break and into the New Year. Once mid-January hit the best days of skating were behind us and we never had long enough stretches of cold weather to make good ice . Being closed 18 days was easily the most we' ve experienced during my tenure. We 're hoping to have a much colder and better ice making season in 2018 .