As summer officially began and swimmers and boaters watched the lake temperature rise, the Skaneateles Community Center workers were more wrapped up in ice.
Recreation director Matt Major selected June to remove the ice from the William G. Allyn Ice Arena and create a fresh surface. The center does this process every two years. Refurbishing the frozen floor gave employees the chance to clean and paint the rink's surrounding boards and rink area.
“There's two parts of it. Our part of it is to get out there and clean up all the dasher parts ... those are the hockey boards. Some of those over time have to be replaced,” Major said. “We thoroughly clean the backs and the fronts and we have to clean the glass thoroughly. While we're doing all that, also the facility gets warm so we can paint easier and do the rink and all the detail stuff that we're unable to do when the conditions are cold.”
The rink remained out of commission throughout most of the month.
The center tries to keep the process as in-house as possible. Lifeguards helped clean the glass surface of boards surrounding the rink, for example.
“It's a chore, but it's also something different. The thing about everything we do around here is that you're ... in so many different directions that it's very interesting,” Major said.
First, the employees turned off the nine miles of refrigerator piping underneath the rink and started up the two miles of piping dedicated to warming the rink. This melted the ice from the floor up, allowing workers to use a small vehicle to shovel the ice off the concrete floor. After this one-day task, workers began to bring the floor temperature down gradually. During the season, the rink floor is kept at 13 degrees and the ice remains at 22 to 24 degrees.
By cooling the floor in stages, the center saves on energy costs, Major said. Maintaining a cold enough space during the summer months means the center's managers look for ways to keep the facility operating as efficiently as possible. One factor is the thickness of the ice. A quality ice surface is between 1.25 inches to 1.5 inches, which allows the ice to be chilled with maximum effectiveness while keeping costs down.
Once the rink was ready, workers began with a controlled flood to seal the floor. This turned into about one-eight of an inch of ice.
Then, employees used a large wand and sprayed white paint to create the gleaming play surface. The center buys roughly 40 bags of powdered paint to uniformly cover the surface in two coats.
From there, they misted the ice to create layers and seal in the white paint. This keeps the process at a slow pace and caused the entire operation to create a National Hockey League sized rink, at 200 feet in length and 85 feet wide, to last about 10 days.
“It's a very slow process because you can't just go out there and spray a fire hose on it or you'd blow the paint all over the place,” Major said. “You have to go out there with a garden hose and mist it real lightly.”
Once the cold water turned into a half-inch solid surface, employees then created the lines that made a large oval into a true hockey rink. They used rolls of paper rather than paint to mark the playing surface, creating the goal lines and playoff circles.
“Basically, it's a lot of measuring and laying it out before you get out there so (that's) the time consuming part,” Major said.
Again, they misted the rink with the garden sprayer to freeze the paper dots and lines to the surface. Then, the workers built up to surface that can handle an 1 inch hose and then the fire hose.
They also have to include the logos closer to the surface. This is for the Skaneateles Youth Hockey Association and the Skaneateles Lakers. They have painted those into the surface, but this year they used mesh logos and planned to hand paint the Allyn Arena wording.
More water sealed those in the playing surface.
The final step is less technical. Ice skaters help in the process because they help compact the surface and get the trapped air out.
“The best thing is when the skaters get out there,” Major said, “the ice will crack and break the ice up and that will strengthens the ice and give you a nice solid surface.”
“There's two parts of it. Our part of it is to get out there and clean up all the dasher parts ... those are the hockey boards. Some of those over time have to be replaced,” Major said. “We thoroughly clean the backs and the fronts and we have to clean the glass thoroughly. While we're doing all that, also the facility gets warm so we can paint easier and do the rink and all the detail stuff that we're unable to do when the conditions are cold.”
The rink remained out of commission throughout most of the month.
The center tries to keep the process as in-house as possible. Lifeguards helped clean the glass surface of boards surrounding the rink, for example.
“It's a chore, but it's also something different. The thing about everything we do around here is that you're ... in so many different directions that it's very interesting,” Major said.
First, the employees turned off the nine miles of refrigerator piping underneath the rink and started up the two miles of piping dedicated to warming the rink. This melted the ice from the floor up, allowing workers to use a small vehicle to shovel the ice off the concrete floor. After this one-day task, workers began to bring the floor temperature down gradually. During the season, the rink floor is kept at 13 degrees and the ice remains at 22 to 24 degrees.
By cooling the floor in stages, the center saves on energy costs, Major said. Maintaining a cold enough space during the summer months means the center's managers look for ways to keep the facility operating as efficiently as possible. One factor is the thickness of the ice. A quality ice surface is between 1.25 inches to 1.5 inches, which allows the ice to be chilled with maximum effectiveness while keeping costs down.
Once the rink was ready, workers began with a controlled flood to seal the floor. This turned into about one-eight of an inch of ice.
Then, employees used a large wand and sprayed white paint to create the gleaming play surface. The center buys roughly 40 bags of powdered paint to uniformly cover the surface in two coats.
From there, they misted the ice to create layers and seal in the white paint. This keeps the process at a slow pace and caused the entire operation to create a National Hockey League sized rink, at 200 feet in length and 85 feet wide, to last about 10 days.
“It's a very slow process because you can't just go out there and spray a fire hose on it or you'd blow the paint all over the place,” Major said. “You have to go out there with a garden hose and mist it real lightly.”
Once the cold water turned into a half-inch solid surface, employees then created the lines that made a large oval into a true hockey rink. They used rolls of paper rather than paint to mark the playing surface, creating the goal lines and playoff circles.
“Basically, it's a lot of measuring and laying it out before you get out there so (that's) the time consuming part,” Major said.
Again, they misted the rink with the garden sprayer to freeze the paper dots and lines to the surface. Then, the workers built up to surface that can handle an 1 inch hose and then the fire hose.
They also have to include the logos closer to the surface. This is for the Skaneateles Youth Hockey Association and the Skaneateles Lakers. They have painted those into the surface, but this year they used mesh logos and planned to hand paint the Allyn Arena wording.
More water sealed those in the playing surface.
The final step is less technical. Ice skaters help in the process because they help compact the surface and get the trapped air out.
“The best thing is when the skaters get out there,” Major said, “the ice will crack and break the ice up and that will strengthens the ice and give you a nice solid surface.”
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