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Communities at Work: Smoothing it out January 10, 2009
It's large and gray. Sporting four studded tires and the word "Olympia" on the grill, its pilot drags an 84-inch blade across the ice, which is a little more than 1 1/2 inches thick. "You bring that on the ice and even the open skaters stay to watch. People are just fascinated," said Tammy Seela, Parks and Recreation manager. It's safer than it sounds, and the end product is a fresh top layer of ice, ready for skaters to enjoy at the Moffat County Ice Arena. Each of the five members on staff at the arena run the resurfacer machine, but it's not as easy as it sounds. "There's a lot more to making ice than just driving," Seela said.
Matt Kincheloe checks the snow dump on the ice resurfacer Tuesday night after one of the practices held at the Moffat County Ice Arena. Each time the machine is taken onto the ice, 250 gallons of water are laid down to fill in grooves and create a smooth surface.
As he makes his way around the rink, Kincheloe is shaving off 1/32 of an inch of ice and then putting down a layer of water. The rink's refrigeration system keeps the ice at 17 to 19 degrees, which causes the water to freeze in two to three minutes, making it ready to skate on.
The resurfacer is kept in an adjacent shed and is driven into the rink nightly before making its way around the course.
The ice resurfacer runs on propane, as opposed to gasoline, because burning the propane doesn't produce carbon monoxide in the enclosed rink.
