It will be a common sight this year on Arborg’s rustic skating trail to see the town mayor resurfacing river ice so that kids, families and visitors can get into the great outdoors.
In addition to his roster of municipal duties, mayor Peter Dueck is firing up the town’s Zamboni and getting the trail and rink on the Icelandic River in peak condition for people to enjoy leisurely skates and hockey games.
“It just so happens that getting onto the river is easiest at my place and I have a heated facility to store the Zamboni,” said Dueck. “The town’s shop is too small to house the Zamboni.”
The trail stretches west from the Main Street (PR 326) bridge and winds through a bucolic landscape of trees and fields. Dueck estimates the trail runs about 2.5 kilometres but can change given snow storms or from flooding by springs that feed the river.
Local businesses and volunteers provide conveniences to skaters and hockey players.
“Arborg Home Hardware has been supplying a warm-up shack each year,” said Dueck. “Deputy mayor Ron Johnston has been installing benches in the shack and finding straw bales to place along the path for skaters to take a break.”
Awareness of the trail is growing each year and oftentimes when November rolls around, people are asking the town about the skating trail.
“The weather has been so favorable up until this week [last week], and we’ve had tons of people taking advantage of the trail,” said Dueck. “Someone estimated they saw up to 100 skaters on the ice one particular day during the holidays so it seems the popularity of the trail is increasing.”
Last year a group of manufacturers in the Arborg and Bifrost-Riverton area bought a Zamboni for the town so that it could groom the skating trail and rink each year.
“The town certainly appreciates the generous donation of Diemo [Machine Works], Okno Manufacturing, Romafa [Metal Works], and Vidir Solutions for supplying the Zamboni,” said Dueck. “The Zamboni has been a complete game changer in our ability to have a well maintained skating surface.”
In addition to cleaning and removing debris from ice, Zambonis dispense hot water that melts a layer of ice and results in a smooth silky finish.
What Dueck said he’d love to have is better access to hot water because filling the Zamboni at his house exhausts his hot-water supply, and he’s anticipating having to run the Zamboni more often. An industrial hot water pressure washer would be ideal.
“The way the river froze this year we can achieve very good ice in two or three passes,” he said. “One thing that is needed is access to hot water. I can fill the Zamboni at my place once, and then we are out of hot water in our house. Something like a Hotsy pressure washer that supplies heated water on demand would be a nice feature.”
