Soldotna’s ice rink is getting a $226,500 makeover. That’s after city council members signed off on funding for a laundry list of projects at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
The list comes from a report the city commissioned to study the ice arena, which is estimated to be 15 years past its usable life. Trevor Baldwin supervises operations for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. He grew up skating on the rink and says it’s starting to show its age.
“It shows the due diligence and maintenance that we have done to make our system last as long as we have,” he said. “But it is time.”
The study analyzed the full ice arena, which includes the refrigeration system, the ice rink floor and the perimeter boards. Recommendations include expanding onsite freon storage, forward-funding maintenance of the center’s compressors and rebuilding the spare compressor. That’s on top of upgrading the arena’s emergency lighting system and replacing the building’s hot water tank.
Baldwin says the city sometimes has trouble keeping up with the building’s needs due to its age. The refrigerant freon, for example, can no longer be produced or imported to the United States, which has made it harder to find. And he says some machinery parts are no longer being manufactured either.
The Soldotna Regional Sports Complex is the home rink for the Kenai River Brown Bears, a Tier II junior league hockey team. The rink is also open intermittently for public use and hosts learn-to-skate classes, local league practices and school games.
The council will convene at the end of the month for a work session to discuss the ice arena’s future and long-term needs.
