Should a second ice rink be located at Treadwell Ice Arena, or the Mendenhall Valley?
That’s the topic of a meeting tonight (Wednesday) dubbed Twice the Ice.
When Treadwell arena was built, plans called for a second ice sheet there sometime in the future. Then talk turned to the Valley, near Thunder Mountain High School, the Dimond Park Fieldhouse, and new Dimond Park Aquatic Center.
Ice skater Robert Sewell has helped organize tonight’s meeting. He says it’s time to begin the dialogue and resolve the issue, because Juneau needs more ice.
He believes it’s important to maintain and develop the current arena.
“There’s a vibrant skating and hockey community that has focused on use in Douglas for some years. That community needs to be enhanced and protected. If it’s spread out over 15 miles it’s difficult to see that the same level of coherence will occur and continue to evolve,” Sewell says.
He calls it a resource equity as well as cost-control issue.
“It’s difficult to see how the city could justify having two Zamboni’s, two heating systems, two cooling systems, two staffing patterns, simply to add on a second sheet of ice,” he says. “That is a significant additional expense.”
The Twice the Ice discussion is Wednesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Douglas Library.
