The boards for the Kinsmen outdoor rink arrived Tuesday morning and now main construction for the facility is on its final stretch.
“It feels fantastic; it’s been a long time getting to this point,” said Kinsmen member Dave Elliot Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re probably looking at about four days until completion.”
The rest of the process involves standing the boards up, bolting them together and after everything is positioned properly, anchoring them to the cement.
From there the fencing will be put up around the rink, with four foot fencing down the sides and six foot fencing around either end, then doors are installed for people to access the rink and for the Bobcat, which will work as a Zamboni machine, to clear snow off the ice.
Elliot said once this portion is done there will be a few more things to look at, including a larger changing shack because it’s expected the rink will get a lot of use once operational.
The final touch will be putting a roof over the rink, but whether or not that happens this year is still being determined.
“The roof itself is very expensive, even just for the fact of the kind of lighting that’s underneath it, because we’re looking at top of the line LED lighting to really light that up,” Elliot said.
“But the roof itself is well over $100,000 and then the lighting on top and the electrical work that needs to be done — this is an excellent start, but now we have more things we have to get done.”
Elliot added donations toward the project have been great and the Kinsmen are thankful for every penny contributed, but there’s still a ways to go and more charity would be welcomed for the rink.
In the meantime he asked that public keep its distance from the project site for safety reasons, as the boards won’t be anchored for a short while and playing near them could be dangerous.
