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Lino Lakes Parks and Recreation Department 600 Town Center Parkway Lino Lakes, MN 55014 (651) 982 -2440 Fax (651) 982 -2439 www.ci.lino- lakes.mn.us Date: 3/30/09 To: Rick DeGardner, Public Services Director From: Brian lironski, Recreation Program Supervisor Subject: Final 2008 -09 Warming House Report The 2008 -09 warming house and skating season provided another great season of ice conditions and skating. We opened all the rinks on December 15th and we had very few closings once we got started this season. We had another great winter break of skating with no closures and favorable temperatures. The best news was that we only had to close the rinks 6 days during the year. The rinks were open a total of 73 days and the rinks stayed open until March 4th. This was second straight year we stayed open into March. The Centennial Hockey Association continued using our rinks again this season for its supplemental practices. They have continued to be a very respectful user group and they put together a small group of hockey parents that did some late night flooding for us. This program could certainly work better if these efforts started earlier in the season. We continued our weekend rink cleaning program and that certainly makes a big difference for the weekend skaters. With heavy traffic at places like Sunrise Park it's very important that we keep the rink swept on the weekends. Again part-time seasonal staff was up bright and early on Saturday mornings to sweep and clean the rinks at Sunrise, Birch, and City Hall Parks. We had another good year as far as injuries were concerned with only one accident report turned in during the 2008 -09 season. The injury occurred at Birch Park when one of our skaters was hit in the eye with a stick. The injury was treated with an ice pack and the participant continued to skate later that evening. The injuries at the rinks have continued to lesson over the past few years and I believe the staff has done a great job of tightening rules and regulations at the rink The overall numbers for the skating season were close to last year with no real upward trend. Our maintenance staff did an outstanding job of preparing the rinks and getting them ready to be skated on. As always the busiest rink was Sunrise Park and on many occasions there were kids waiting to skate right at 4:00 PM when we opened. Birch Park was a little slower this season and one of the reasons may have been the increased numbers at City Hall Park. This was the most used City Hall Park has been since we changed the hours of operation at that site. Rink users are finally figuring out that it's more fun to skate at a rink that isn't as used and where the ice conditions are usually very good. In closing we had another great skating season and the weather was very cooperative again this year. Our rink staff was excellent and our maintenance staff continues to do a great job getting the rinks ready to be skated on. CC: Lino Lakes Park Board BH /warminghouse2008/ 2007- 08finalwarminghousereport.doc