Ice Rink to Open for Season

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Rainy weather and dropping temperatures usually mean that more people turn to the gym for exercise – but there’s one outdoor activity that flourishes at this time of year. The Baranof (bear-uh-noff) Park ice-skating rink will open for the season at the beginning of November.

Kodiak Parks & Recreation Department employees have started the week-long process of covering the rink with ice. Corey Gronn is the Parks and Rec Director and says this morning they started the compressors.

“Which get the chilling tubes below the concrete going. They make the concrete cold and then what we’ll do is once it gets to 1 8 degrees, we will start to laden small layers of water onto the concrete, which then start freezing. After about a quarter inch of ice, we will lay our first coat of ice paint down. That’s what gets that nice looking white ice instead of clear ice.”

Gronn says they layer the coats of ice until they reach between an inch and a quarter and an inch and a half of thickness.

He says their first open skating period is tentatively scheduled for November 2 between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. And if your skates are a little blunt, while there’s no longer a skate sharpening service on the island since Skater’s Edge closed this spring, Gronn says the Kodiak Hockey League will help out with that once it sets up its schedule. Check out the Kodiak Hockey League Facebook page for updates on that and more information. You can also take a look at the ice rink’s schedule here.