08-06-2012 Park Board Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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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: 3/7/12 To: Rick DeGardner, Public Services Director From: Brian Hronski, Recreation Program Supervisor Subject: Final 2011 -12 Warming House Report The 2011 -12 warming house and skating season was the worst we've seen in recent years. With a late opening date and an early closing we had an extremely short season. When we had ice it wasn't near the quality as we've had in years prior due to the fluxuation of temperatures and ice making conditions. Our ice season kicked off on Friday January 13`'' which was the latest we've opened in many years. Not being open over winter break is always a big disappointment because that's when we have the highest number of skaters and the kids are out of school. Even opening when we did the ice wasn't in top condition but we felt we needed to open and try to get the skating season started. After being open for 2 weeks we hit another huge warm spell which really hurt our ice conditions. The warm spell lasted from February 1st — 8th and we were forced to close the warming houses during that time. With the damage to the ice from the warm weather we were lucky to squeeze another 10 days of the skating season. Once we reopened the rinks the conditions were poor as frost boils started cover the ice surface. We closed for the season on Saturday February 18`h As in past years the Centennial Hockey Association again used our rinks for youth hockey practices. I noticed a reduced number of teams signing up for practice time and we had some holes in the CYHA schedule. I'm hoping this was just a one year trend that will change next year. 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. Again this year we had part time maintenance staff clean Sunrise and Birch Park's rinks on Saturday mornings. This was again a nice service to provide especially at the rinks with higher use. Not cleaning the rinks at all over the weekend really lessons the skating conditions. Don Jensen again helped in weekend ice maintenance. We had 2 incidents during the skating season and both occurred at Sunrise Park. The first incident happened on Thursday February 9th and one of the warming house attendants shot a puck over the boards and broke a car window. The gentleman was parked right by the side warming house door and was parked in a less than ideal spot. The other incident happened when one of our snack and skate participants tripped while skating and split their chin open. That child required stitches and was ok. Although the season was brief in days our hourly skater numbers increased at all three sites. Birch Park averaged 7.04, Sunrise Park averaged 12.8, and City Hall Park averaged 7.99 skaters per hour. Those numbers indicate that our skating rinks and warning houses are still a very popular winter recreation option here in Lino Lakes. My hope is for next year we have many more days to enjoy the skating season. CC: Lino Lakes Park Board BH /warminghouse2011 / 2012- 10finalwarminghousereport.doc