Starting next week, the ice inside of the Elgar Petersen Arena will begin its short offseason.
At the conclusion of the Humboldt Broncos Spring camp this weekend, work will begin to remove the ice surface from the arena to allow for the summer activities inside of the facility.
Director of Community and Leisure Services Mike Ulriksen says that removing the ice has developed into a simpler task.
It begins with the ice plant being turned off.
“What we end up doing is that we actually leave the brine lines running. So that’s what pulls the heat out of the ice, we'll leave that liquid rotating through. It actually does this to help break the seal of the ice off the concrete. We'll leave that for all of Monday, probably into Tuesday.”
The ice will then be melted into drains and then the logos will be removed from the ice, said Ulriksen.
They're all reusable logos, so we have to take some staffing time to hose them down because we've got the white ice paint that's in the mix too. So, we end up holding down all of our logos, laying them up to dry.”
Then the remaining water and paint residue will head into the drains.
Once the area is dried up, the floor and boards will be cleaned up.
Ulriksen noted it was another busy winter for the Elgar Petersen Arena, adding that they saw a large increase of usage during the daytime hours, especially with Senior 55+ hockey taking place a couple of days during the week.
In May, a couple of events will be held inside of the arena, including an event with the Horizon School Division and the Dine & Dash Diabetes fundraiser at the end of the month.
The arena will also be busy in June for events including Summer Sizzler and graduation ceremonies. There will also be the sheep show in July.
And before we know it, work will begin to restore the ice surface. Ulriksen said the plan is to have the ice surface ready around August 18, when the rink will be busy once again with hockey camps and eventually the Broncos fall camp.