Tour guides city in options for rec facilities

City officials visit ice rinks in Twin Cities area

By CHRIS VETTER

Journal Staff Writer

BLAINE -- About a dozen New Ulm city officials toured four Twin Cities ice rinks Tuesday, gleaning information for the city's new and upgraded park and recreation facilities.

The caravan, comprised of four city councilors and seven city staff, wanted to know what has worked -- and what has not -- for other cities that built new park and recreation buildings.

New Ulm will begin construction of a new ice rink/exhibit hall at the Brown County Fairgrounds this fall. The city also will expand the Senior Citizens Center to include a dining hall and will renovate Vogel Arena, turning the old ice rink into courts for basketball, tennis and gymnastics.

The tour was used to generate ideas, from cutting costs to avoiding design mistakes. Councilors and staff gathered information on everything from whether to include shower space to suggestions for window placement.

The current construction plans are estimated to cost $11.7 million. However, the city is limited to $9 million in spending for the three buildings. Councilors and staff are seeking ways to trim the budget while still obtaining amenities laid out in existing blueprints.

The city officials started the day in Chaska, where they toured the Chaska Community Center & Arena. That city has two ice rinks, one built several years after the first.

Chris Goodman, assistant director for Chaska Park and Recreation, gave New Ulm personnel a guided tour of the complex, built for $9 million in 1991. Renovations since it opened, including the second ice rink, have totaled $5.5 million. Goodman notes that the building is a popular hangout for Chaska youth throughout the year, as kids play basketball, go swimming or take to the ice.

"When middle school gets out, we get at least 100 kids a day," Goodman said.

Like plans for New Ulm, Chaska only uses one ice sheet year round. The other rink is thawed and used for exhibit space. However, Goodman warned that the building becomes quite hot in the summer, and it is too large to adequately air condition. Ted Rozeboom, the architect working on blueprints for the three New Ulm facilities, said the New Ulm ice rink will not have air conditioning either.

"If it's hot out, it won't be any cooler inside," Rozeboom said.

Goodman told city officials that the rink that is never defrosted has a sand floor instead of cement. Rozeboom said New Ulm officials should consider using a sand floor on the year-round rink to lower initial construction costs. However, if a rink is not used all year for ice skating, it should have a cement floor, he said.

The Chaska complex includes team locker rooms, which were funded entirely by local hockey clubs. That hockey club has exclusive use of it, and team members use it to store equipment.

Council President Dan Beranek liked the idea, saying that local teams may want to pay for the construction of their own team locker room at the new ice rink.

"If they want one, now would be the time to get going on it," Beranek said.

Goodman said that ice time is limited in the evening, as local groups sign up for all available time from 2 p.m. through 11 p.m. Also, the Chaska facility is funded entirely through memberships and daily passes. No tax dollars are used at the complex.

City personnel then traveled across the Twin Cities to Schwan's Super Rink in Blaine, which opened in 1998 at a cost of $11 million. The complex features four year-round ice rinks. An additional two rinks are under consideration. Six area high schools fight for the limited ice time, said Erick Sutherland, assistant manager at the rink.

City officials wanted to see the Blaine site specifically because it is the complex closest in blueprints to the New Ulm building: an upper concourse in the middle of the building looks down onto the ice sheets below. The heated concourse is used as a meeting area, with concession stands and office space.

Under the New Ulm plan, the larger, olympic-sized rink would be converted into exhibit space when needed. The olympic rink would seat about 800 people, while the smaller rink would have seating for 300. Vogel Arena currently seats 700-750 for ice-related shows.

Sutherland strongly suggested the city look at even more seating at its main rink. The Blaine complex has about 400 seats in each of its four rinks.

"If we could do it all again, we'd have one larger rink with seating for 2,000," Sutherland said.

City personnel then moved to Braemar Arena in Edina. Its three rinks were constructed at different times, and the two smaller rinks did not impress city officials, ranging from the texture of the concrete walls to the lighting inside.

"It looks bargain-basement," said Councilor Ron Fleischmann. "I don't want ours to look bargain-basement. I want ours to look good."

Among the top ideas the city officials liked was a shared bathroom space for two team locker rooms. Bathrooms, including a shower area, could be accessed from two separate locker rooms, cutting down on the total bathroom space.

Another discussion area focused on the existing stands in Vogel Arena. Dave Bechtold, park and recreation director, wants to remove the stands to free more space for a running track and basketball courts.

"I'd sacrifice the seating before I'd sacrifice the courts," Bechtold said.

City personnel concluded their day-long tour with a stop at the Celebrity Palace in Mystic Lake Casino. Rozeboom wanted to show city officials the tiered seating in that concert hall. Similar seating is planned for the new dining/performance area at the Senior Citizens Center. The tiered seating -- three levels in all -- allows for better sightlines to the stage area and creates a smaller, dining room atmosphere, Rozeboom explained.

Bob Skillings, formerly chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission said the tour was helpful in generating plans.

"We have an opportunity to have a very nice facility by combining ideas," Skillings said.