New Skating Rink Opens in Port Clinton Square
Downtown has a new skating rink, but it's not ice.
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New Skating Rink Opens in Port Clinton Square
(Left to right) Thirteen-year-old Highland Parkers Elsie Han, Anne Greene, Maria Chusin, Tayfun Sahin, test out Highland Park's new ice skating rink in Port Clinton Square last Friday evening.
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Photos
The Downtown Highland Park Alliance opened its new outdoor ice skating rink last week at Port Clinton Square.
Approximately 50-foot-square, it's made of a synthetic surface called “Xtraice”, and allows skaters to do everything they would do on ice. Unlike traditional synthetic surfaces, it isn't weather dependent and doesn’t make skaters stick or slide when skating and offers the best gliding performance.
Public skating will be open Monday through Thursday 3:15 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday 3:15 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Daytime skating hours may be extended when schools let out for winter break.
There's even a warming house tucked in Port Clinton Square. Admission price is $2 and skate rental is $2 when available.
See photos of the new skating rink above.
forest barbieri
9:26 am on Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Super! I do hope our local merchants are having a profitable holiday season as a lot of work and thought is going into driving traffic to the business core. While I am in my Russia offices this week and strangely, it is not yet cold enough for our local ice rink, my daughters have told me that the HP ice scuptures were replaced after an initial melting and are very excited about the new skating rink! THANK YOU or as we say here, spacibo:)
David Greenberg
4:28 pm on Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Curious: Who's paying for the ice sculptures, lights, and skating rink uptown? Tax payers, private donations, or some mix of the two? If a mix, how much from each? If it's taxpayers or a mix, how do we calculate the return on our investment?
Lane Young
4:53 pm on Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The lights are paid for out of the City's annual budget, so that's 100% tax payers.
The ice sculptures and rink are paid for by the Downtown Alliance. The Alliance is a public/private partnership overwhelmingly funded by a special assessment (i.e accepted voluntary tax) on downtown property owners. The Council debated a fair amount during the budget cycle how to judge ROI on the tax payer money and based on that conversation, expect them to develop a way to make that judgement this coming year.
David Greenberg
8:32 pm on Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Thanks Lane, I appreciate the insight.
If I recall correctly, last year the City wanted to keep the lights off during the day, and turn them on at night. The Alliance balked about that, and ponied up some money to keep them on for an extended time. I'm not sure if that's the case this year as well.
But when it comes around, I'll be most interested to see the ROI calculations...
Happy holidays buddy!