Prince George’s main outdoor skating facility has shut its gates for the season.
Between record snowfalls and inconsistent temperatures, the Ice Oval Society is pulling the plug on maintaining the ice surface for the season.
They are using the early closure as a platform to bring their request to “chill the oval” back into the spotlight.
“That has been our goal for a while, we have a fundraising campaign running right now,” said Kathy Lewis, the Ice Oval Society President.
She said she does not think the fundraiser will “ever be able to raise all the money for the full cost of refrigeration,” but added that the more they do raise the more likely they will be able to partner with the city to cover the rest of the cost – which she estimated at five to six million dollars.
“The city is on board with it, just amongst all the other priorities for funding, we need to continue to argue that the oval should be up there,” she said, mentioning that some areas, like housing, will rightfully be billed ahead of the oval.
According to Lewis, this is the oval’s second straight year with significant weather-related challenges.
She said the stability of the ice was severely impacted by freeze-thaw conditions in late January.
Lewis explained “when we [took] our equipment out on that ice surface… we end up causing breaking in the ice sheet that are running every which way.”
Once they realized it was not safe to skate on, she said they closed the oval right away.
“We spent over 200 hours of volunteer time trying to bring the ice back,” which she said included people on their hands and knees filling cracks with slush, snow, and floods.
“Unfortunately, especially with the warm weather coming, we are having to close.”
The situation was frustrating for Lewis and her staff, as well as people who normally would have been on the ice.
“We feel really bad that we weren’t able to be open these last couple weeks when the skating weather was really nice, but that is just the way it goes when we are relying on mother nature and natural ice,” she said.
In closing, she thanked the 30 volunteers on the ice crew this season, and everyone who came out for a skate over the winter.
You can find out more about the Ice Oval and donate here.