Lace ’em up!
Arena readies for skating season
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LAURIUM -- Village officials are getting the George Gipp Ice Arena set for the upcoming ice skating season with an increased number of rental skates and a new skate sharpener.
Last year, Laurium Village Manager Ian Lewis announced a new ice skate rental program during public skating hours. Funding for the program came from a grant from the Keweenaw Community Foundation’s “Get Active Initiative,” which looks to create flexible and affordable avenues for residents and neighboring community members to enjoy activities in Laurium.
“This program will allow children and adults to be able to rent quality ice skates, while also being able to enjoy one of our community’s favorite pastimes at the George Gipp Ice Arena,” Lewis said. “We would like to thank the Keweenaw Community Foundation for awarding us this grant, and the village would like to thank Center Ice Skate & Sport for assisting us in acquiring the ice skates for the new rental program. Your professional guidance helped allow our community to gain so many pairs of ice skates.”
Rental skates were available for the first time last November, starting with 46 pairs of skates that range from smaller youth sizes all the way up to adult size 13. Earlier this month, the village announced it received an additional grant award from the Keweenaw Community Foundation and the CLK Youth Hockey Fund to continue growing the program.
With the new grant, the village was able to acquire 15 to 20 more pairs of skates so it can continue to provide more opportunities to kids and adults who want to learn to ice skate. To accommodate the expanding inventory, rink staff got rid of an old stove and plan to get rid of a broken refrigerator, which will be replaced with more shelves for ice skates.
Additionally, Village officials are exploring purchasing a Sparx skate sharpener -- an automated, high-precision machine that grinds and sharpens skate blades.
Lewis said he contacted the Sparx company to inquire about purchasing a residential-type machine, which had been priced at approximately $1,600. The council had previously approved purchasing the smaller machine if the cost did not exceed $1,500.
However, the retailer recommended the commercial machine due to the quantity of skates.
"They told me those are only good for sharpening one to two pairs of skates a week, is what I think they'd said," Lewis said. "We'd want to order a commercial one for about $3,600."
Lewis said the machine would be used to sharpen the rental skates twice a year -- once at the beginning of the season, and again around Christmas -- which would be some 60 pairs of skates sharpened twice a year. Currently, the village pays a local company in Houghton about $5 a pair to sharpen them.
Village Council President pro tempore Jeff Erickson said in addition to saving the village money in the long run, the machine would provide the Gipp the ability to sharpen privately owned skates for a fee.