While it’s summer outside, the City of Estevan’s leisure services division is already thinking about the winter sports season and the ice at Affinity Place.
Rod March, the City of Estevan’s manager of parks and facilities, said there is an in-depth process from pebble coating the arena’s concrete slab up to wand coating that is required to create arena ice. Numerous coats of water have to be applied.
City crews have flooded the concrete slab at Affinity Place, and are now at the stage of applying cold water using the wand.
Canadian Arena Services, who specialize in the painting and the logo installation, came in to work on those tasks, since the logo for the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins and sponsor logos for the club have to be painted on the ice.
Three coats of white paint were applied on Monday. The third coat is an ultra-bright white paint. Then the logos are added.
“Then we continue with flooding, slowly at first to get it … a quarter-inch above those logos to make sure we don’t do any damage (to the logos) by using cold water, and from there we can flood with hot water for better adhesion to the ice surface. We get it up to an inch and a half, and that’s where we’ll sit, ready for play,” said March.
It takes about 12 to 15 days to complete the ice installation, so it will likely be a week before the installation is complete. The first of the ice sports bookings are scheduled for later this month. He expects the city will have really good, clear ice this season for the Bruins and the other facility users at the arena.
As for the Power Dodge Ice Centre (PDIC), the city will start building the ice for that venue around Aug. 15. There are some reservations already booked for the PDIC, including a Level 1 arena technician course on Aug. 27 that will need to have the ice in place.
The city has also been making upgrades to the PDIC for the upcoming season, including the recent installation of LED lights.
The Estevan Showcase Business Expo was held in the ice centre last year, but it will be moved to the Power Dodge Curling Club this year, since ice installation doesn’t begin at the curling rink until October.
