Ice Den skating season capped at 8 months

The long-fought effort to bring summer skating to the Stumptown Ice Den has been put on ice, leaving a large contingent of local hockey players and figure skaters frustrated and scratching their heads.

For years, local ice skating programs have pushed to bring year-round ice to Whitefish, but last week the city parks board delivered a debilitating blow to those ambitions by voting to cap the ice season at eight months.

Board chairman Doug Wise says the decision — which doesn’t require city council approval — came down to flaws with ice rink design and concerns about the facility’s designation as a multi-use pavilion.

Wise said the Ice Den was never meant to be a year-round ice rink, and pointed to the commercial-grade refrigeration equipment and open-air concept of the facility with garage doors lining the walls along the west and south faces.

Recently, the city brought in a consultant to evaluate the Ice Den’s equipment and design to see if summer ice was a possibility.

“We asked him, point blank, ‘Would you run this all year?’” Wise said. “He said ‘No.’

“Can we run it all year? Sure, but it will wear out quicker and maintenance costs will be higher. The building was not built for that.”

The board also looked at the deed from when the property was gifted to the city by the Mountain Trails Saddle Club. The deed calls for the property to be used as a “family-oriented public park and recreational area.”

“The board looked at that and evaluated it,” Wise said. “It was not meant to be a year-round [ice rink].”

“We feel comfortable, after all these years, that we finally have insight on both the equipment and the deed,” Wise added.

“It was time to make a decision for the staff and the user groups. We needed to give everybody a direction.”

The board voted 3-1 in favor of a six-month ice season with a two month extension. Board members Frank Sweeney and Jim DeHerrera were absent. Wise, who only votes if a tie-break is needed, said he would have voted in support of the eight-month season.

“I feel very positive that we made a smart decision going forward,” Wise said. “Unfortunately, there are some really strong and emotional feelings about it.”

Those strong emotions were brought to a boil last week, namely from the local skating clubs which account for more than 70 percent of the Ice Den’s annual revenue.

Avid hockey supporter Kelly Davidson contends there is vigorous demand for year-round ice and that it’s needed for local skating programs to continue to grow and succeed.

“It seems like [the parks board] doesn’t want the user groups to be successful,” Davidson told the Pilot last week. “But these user groups are providing their revenue.”

In fact, Davidson argues that the city is leaving big money on the table by not providing year-round ice. Hockey tournaments, she said, can bring thousands of dollars into the community.

“Youth hockey tournaments will have 15-20 kids per team, plus their parents,” she said. “They stay at hotels and eat at restaurants.”

“We totally recognize what an economic driver it is and there are a million more ways for us to grow.”

Carol Anderson said the Glacier Skate Academy has become a world-class figure skating program, but that it can’t continue without a year-round facility.

“We’ve all worked tirelessly to get an extended season to then be shot down by the park board,” she said. “We can’t operate without an 11-month season. We will lose our director Chad Goodwin. The kids will not be able to advance in their training.”

Davidson believes the parks department views the skating clubs as “private” groups gobbling up the use of a public facility.

“But all these user groups are the public,” she said. “Anyone can join us to play hockey. We even have scholarships.”

Parks director Maria Butts doesn’t deny those groups are made up of many Whitefish residents.

“We’re not saying they’re not the public,” she responded. “But the definition of public is that it’s open to everyone.”

“The park board made it clear that they want the facility to be multi-use and more than just ice.”

City finance director Dana Smith notes that 73 percent of the Ice Den revenue comes from renting ice time to user groups like hockey and figure skating.

“This means a significant amount of ice time was privately rented during the year,” Smith notes. “These privately rented hours often have an impact on the availability and consistency of scheduling public skate times.”

Summer ice also eliminates the option of other uses at the Ice Den, such as the city’s popular Summer Day Camp for children. Butts says other groups have requested to use the facility for reunions and wedding receptions, corporate events, soccer, baseball, lacrosse and basketball.

In a memo to city council, Butts notes that Whitefish has a history of facility shortages.

“Facility rentals of this size have become highly competitive due to the significant demand and lack of availability,” she said.

But Whitefish Wolverines junior hockey club owner Josh Steel counters that past attempts to use the Ice Den for other events haven’t panned out as envisioned.

“Ten years ago, we tried a whole bunch of other things, but the building is not conducive to those other uses,” he said. “We stopped doing the floor hockey league because there was no air conditioning and it was getting up to 100 degrees in there. That’s not the type of place someone wants to have a wedding.”

Steel says the shortened ice season puts a serious pinch on his hockey team’s chances of success in Whitefish. While the team’s ice time has been secured for this season, 2016 and beyond remains up in the air.

“The decision by the parks board is catastrophic for us,” he said, noting that the team needs to have ice in September to start the season and for the playoffs in late spring.

“Our future was made quite grim by that decision. We have such an awesome team this year and I’m so excited to get back on the ice and build a positive experience for the community, but I just got gut punched by the park board.”

Wise said the park board likely would be willing to accommodate the needs for the Wolverines if the team makes a deep playoff run and needs more ice time.

While Steel agrees that rink upgrades are needed, he says Ice Den users have a notorious track record for overcoming obstacles that plague other facilities.

“We’ve marched forward and grown,” he said. “But it’s ironic that the greatest impediment to our growth is the facility that benefits from the growth. It’s so not the Whitefish way and I don’t know how it got this way.”

Like Steel, Davidson says it’s the skating groups that have invested the energy into making the Ice Den the facility it is today. She believes the city is turning its back on those volunteer efforts.

“We want to protect our hard work and the love we have for the [Ice Den],” she said. “How can the city justify turning this into something that has no users and no love?”