Record overnight warmth and an overall puny winter dashed many a Minneapolitan’s ice skating plans this year. Despite a herculean effort to get the Minneapolis park system’s 45 outdoor ice rinks formed and keep them frozen, the weather just would not cooperate. Skaters got just about a week of use at the end of January before the rinks turned to slush and had to close for good.
Minneapolis Park Board discloses more warm-winter ice rink expenses; cost per day tops $100K
Despite dogged efforts to keep Minneapolis parks’ iconic neighborhood ice rinks frozen, an exceptionally warm winter wasted money, labor and water.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
March 11, 2024 at 7:00PM
The Minneapolis Park Board doesn’t usually track the costs of its iconic neighborhood park rinks, how long they remain open each winter, nor the volume of water spent building ice. But as climate change threatens the longevity of winter sports, members of the public have encouraged the parks to plan for more refrigerated rinks per climatologists’ long-range projections of a future in which Minneapolis will resemble Iowa.
They’re also asking for more accountability data.
The Star Tribune requested the costs of the outdoor rinks in February. The Park Board’s data practices staff answered that a total of $750,187 in labor and materials had been spent this season, which comes out to almost $94,000 a day for a maximum of eight days of skating.
Last week, park staff disclosed additional costs that had been missed in its first response. They now say the Park Board actually spent $887,646, or nearly $111,000 per day.
Park Commissioner Becky Alper has asked staff to locate more information on the expenses of maintaining outdoor ice rinks year over year.
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