Excitement building around downtown ice rink
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While Monday night's city council meeting was relatively light on agenda items, the public comment period did provide Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD) Executive Director Deb Millizer a chance to promote the newly constructed downtown ice rink and welcome skaters in just a few short days.
Millizer, flanked by Councilor Gary Thompson, who served as the Vanna White to her Pat Sajak and modeled a helmet and a pair of skates, pointed to the positive reactions she has seen on social media as evidence of the excitement building around the rink, which was made possible by a partnership between the Iowa Wild and MARSHALLTOWN Company. She was also excited about the location smack dab in the middle of downtown on a city-owned lot at the southwest intersection of Center and Main streets.
From there, she thanked the city for allowing the rink to be placed on the lot, the "behind the scenes" players who pushed to move the rink downtown after initial plans were announced for Riverview Park and the Parks and Recreation Department for their labor and offering skate rentals.
She also thanked MARSHALLTOWN Co. for leading the way on bringing the rink here and the companies that played a role in grading the land to the condition it's currently in -- Ricken Excavating, Con-Struct and Ziegler CAT.
"It's gonna bring some foot traffic to the downtown. We've needed something big downtown for a while. We've been fighting apathy for a while," Millizer said.
Since the dirt work was completed a little over a month ago, Alliant Energy has agreed to put in electrical poles to allow for skating after dark, and AK Construction agreed to hang lighting free of charge. Showroom Auto also donated for additional lighting, and Mann Construction contributed the ramp that goes up to the rink and skating aides. Brothers Garage donated money for festive lighting to be put up, and RACOM is putting up a camera to allow for monitoring of the rink.
"Those are all wonderful things, and it's evidence of this community being able to come together," Millizer said.
She added that it reminded her of a story RACOM President/CEO Mike Miller had told at the Chamber banquet last year about how the community came together to paint the viaduct in 45 minutes and supported the Tremont restaurant in its early days of operation. Millizer felt the rink had been a unifying force and hoped that momentum would continue into the future.
"I think it's an absolutely wonderful story, and I hope it's a story that people talk about for years to come because it is, without a doubt, an example of community and the county coming together to make something great happen," she said.
A ribbon cutting and grand opening celebration for the rink will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 17 from 3:30 to 6 p.m. (it was originally slated for Monday but rescheduled due to weather) with representatives from MARSHALLTOWN Co. and the Iowa Wild -- including the mascot Crash -- on hand, along with some potential food trucks set up around it.
"I would like for as many people as possible to come and celebrate because not only are we celebrating this ice skating rink, but we're celebrating something cool and awesome that this community did together. And most of it was done in kind, which is absolutely wonderful. We should all be proud of the community that we're in," Millizer said.
The soft opening of the rink is planned for Friday depending on the weather, and now that the first major snowstorm of the season hit town earlier this week and temperatures have dropped substantially, it's safe to assume the conditions will be ideal for some good old fashioned skating. Councilor Jeff Schneider, who works for MARSHALLTOWN Co., said there will be signage placed to indicate whether or not skating is allowed.
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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.