Iceville set to close for the season Monday

Anyone who didn’t get a chance to skate at Iceville at Mosaic Stadium is out of luck.

The repurposed football field is shutting down its operations as an outdoor rink for the season Monday.

In a video posted to social media, Sabeen Ahmad, communications manager with Regina Exhibition Association Limited, said the warm weather has been wrecking the ice conditions.

🗣ICEVILLE UPDATE🗣 #yqr #seeyqr #ODR pic.twitter.com/hr1YNgDs71

— Evraz Place Live (@evrazplacelive) February 25, 2021

“The good news is that Mother Nature has decided to warm things up, and we really can’t be mad at her for that. However, the bad news is that the warmer temperatures have started to wreak havoc on our ice here,” she said.

Appointments for anyone who booked a skate for Saturday or Sunday will still go ahead. However, any for Monday or later will be cancelled.

Some city-operated outdoor rinks still plan to stay open until March 7.

Charmaine Neufeld, the city’s manager of park maintenance, said those plans could change if there’s an extended stretch of temperatures above 0 C.

“There isn’t a specific temperature threshold. It depends how long it’s warm, how warm and how sunny. We’ll monitor it next week and if it starts getting too slushy, then we’ll close things,” she said.

There are multiple techniques the city can use to keep the ice safe and functional with the mild temperatures.

“We’ll do some light floods in the morning, just to keep things nice and smooth. If we’re finding that one end of a rink is melting, they might put a little bit of snow in there to help alleviate the melting. It means it might not be quite as smooth, but at least it won’t be crusher dust showing through,” she said.

While maintenance crews use those strategies, she hopes people will be able to squeeze in some last-minute skating.

“We’ll try and keep them going for the week, if possible … It might only be 1 C or 2 C. If it’s only for a couple of hours in the late afternoon, that’s not too bad. It depends on the day … If it’s only moderately warm, we might be OK,” she explained.

“The forecast isn’t always right, so who knows?”