Get your skates ready

The City of Moose Jaw hopes to have all of its major outdoor skating facilities fully operational by Dec. 22 - provided the weather co-operates.
Randy Kinnee, city parks and recreation operations manager, said this week the city is flooding the Wakamow Valley speedskating oval, as well as its outdoor rinks.
He anticipates the skating oval to be ready for public use within seven to 10 days, and the outdoor rinks ready in time for school students to start winter vacation.
"That's provided the weather holds," he said. Some years local temperatures only allow for skating ice from the middle of January to early February.
Once rink surfaces are complete, the city maintains them with periodic flooding and daily cleaning. For those rinks with enclosures, Kinnee said various community associations assume responsibility for opening, closing and maintaining them on a regular basis.
Kinnee said the city's outdoor rink program is scheduled to last until the end of February, after which time the city will determine if the beginning of March will be cold enough to maintain the rinks another week or so.
He added many of the city's skating ice surfaces aren't rinks with boards and lights but just maintained frozen surfaces in various parks and other areas of Moose Jaw.

How to make ice

At the speedskating oval in Wakamow Valley, making ice consists of driving a truck with a 3,784-litre water tank around the track, spraying water evenly over the surface, letting it freeze and then spraying it again, according to city officials.
At the other rinks, two city crews of two go around flooding the facilities for approximately 1 1/2 hours before moving onto the next rink. Each flooding produces about three millimetres of ice. Crews conduct 20-30 floods on each surface to reach the desired 10-centimetre thickness.

Carter Haydu can be reached at 691-1265.