Citizen effort leads to new ice rink in Spencer Lions Park
Residents in Spencer both young and old are eagerly waiting for permission to lace up their ice skates and make some figure eights on the recently completed ice skating rink located in the village’s Lions Park. Water was poured last week by the Spencer Fire Department for the rink, which is expected to open as soon as the ice is determined to be solid enough for use.
Though the village of Spencer has had an ice rink in winters past, village clerk Paul Hensch said it has been quite a few years since residents have had one to skate on. When interest and usage of the rink faded, so did the drive to build one each winter, he said.
“We have had it in years gone by, we did have an ice rink in the back parking lot,” he said.
That all changed this winter after a community member, who wished to remain anonymous, approached the Village Board at its meeting on Dec. 14 and requested permission to have an ice rink built in the park.
“We had a community member, he and his son moved into the village this summer,” said Hensch about the community member who started the project. “They have a history of a lot of ice skating and have participated in a lot of club teams. They saw this as an opportunity to get an ice rink. We started moving ahead on Dec. 14 when he first approached the Board.”
Following the meeting, Hensch said fundraising and gauging public interest in the project began. While the community member who first came to the Board was prepared to do all the work by himself, Hensch said after posting a notice about the idea on the village’s Facebook page, that didn’t become necessary.
“I really credit this to the gentleman who came up with this,” he said. “He was willing to do the whole project himself. The Facebook post was the only thing we did and it went from there. It makes a big difference in the community to have this.”
With the community’s overwhelming support of the project, Hensch said the size of the ice rink changed from its original plans. Originally, he said the rink was to be 35 X 60-feet, with a fundraising goal of $1,200 to cover the cost of materials. However, donations by community members far surpassed that goal, collecting a total of $2,700. With the additional funds, it was decided to make the rink bigger, resulting in the 60 X 100-foot rink now situated along Wendell Street in Lions Park.
“The original goal of the project was to raise $1,200 for the ice rink,” he said. “After posting the information on the village Facebook page, the donations that came in just about doubled. Because of that, the original size was more than doubled.”
Village workers set about constructing the rink during the week of Jan. 11, with water poured the following week. It is expected that the ice rink will be opened sometime in the next week or so and will be open for public use during the same hours as Lions Park. Lighting is also expected to be added in the near future to make the rink safe for people to use at night.
STAFF PHOTO
