SALAMANCA — A recent bout of cold weather combined with the efforts of the Salamanca Department of Public Works (DPW) has led to opening the Bill Flanigan Ice Rink for the first time since 2013.
After a week of freezing temperatures and careful preparations by the DPW, the pond at the end of Fawn Avenue was ready for skaters to hit the ice beginning Thursday.
“It’ll be open this afternoon at 3,” said DPW Superintendent Rob Carpenter Thursday morning. “It’s been something special in the city for many years. Unfortunately, weather conditions the past four years have not allowed us to open the ice pond.”
Luckily, this December has had the ideal conditions.
With temperatures in the teens and single digits since Monday, Carpenter said the weather was right for freezing the ice. At the beginning of the week the ice layer was at 3 inches, he said, but much of the pond had 5 ½ inches Thursday morning.
“The last couple days I’ve had the man power,” he said. “Jared Talbot and the crew have been up there working diligently to get this open.”
Carpenter said since Monday, a crew of about six has been at the pond every day to get it ready for the weekend. Talbot and a crew were there Thursday afternoon finishing up final preparations before the rink opened in a few hours, including taking down the “No Skating” sign and putting up one with the hours of operation.
“It’s something that everybody’s been looking forward to” Carpenter said. “We had the weather and the opportunity to get it prepped enough to open it up.”
In recent weeks, the crew’s preparations included blowing and shoveling snow off the surface, sweeping and brushing off any fresh snow and spraying the pond with water for a clean layer of ice, Carpenter said.
“That’s what we’re in the process of doing now,” he explained. “Spraying gives it a little more smoother surface than we had. It’ll be good for the moment to get this open for the kids.”
A creek that runs south of the pond along Interstate 86 is used to begin filling the pond. Carpenter said the crew opens some pipes to help flood it to where they want the depth to be.
“We have it barricaded off where (the ice) starts getting down below four inches,” he said.
Depending on the weather in coming weeks, Carpenter said a DPW crew will check on the pond and keep it cleared off for skating. He said if there is a lot of snow, the roads and sidewalks would have to be plowed first and then a crew would head up to the ice pond to take care of it.
Then it’s just a matter of clearing the fresh snow off pond, Carpenter added.
“We’re happy to have the opportunity to open it,” he said.
(Contact reporter Kellen Quigley at kquigleysp@gmail.com.)
