The renovated ice arena at Sprinker Recreation Center will reopen Saturday with public skating and opening festivities.
After being closed for eight months for a $6.5 million remodel, the arena in Spanaway has a new rink, roof and refrigeration equipment.
Doors will open at 9 a.m. for an open house. County officials and a special guest – Olympic ice dancing silver medalist Ben Agosto – will give brief remarks at 10:30 a.m. County Executive Pat McCarthy will then ride the Zamboni ice resurfacer through a ribbon across the ice for the grand reopening.
A public skating session will follow. The cost for the “public skate cheapskate session” will be $5.50 per person including skate rental.
For awhile in 2010, it appeared the ice arena would close for safety reasons after engineers pointed out structural deficiencies and other problems. A follow-up engineering report concluded the roof of the 35-year-old facility could withstand another winter.
McCarthy went to the Pierce County Council with a $6 million budget for the ice arena after original projections to renovate the arena and the rest of the recreation center reached an unaffordable $34 million.
The reopening was postponed from Jan. 21 due to last week’s snow and ice storm. Sprinker Recreation Center is located at 14824 S. C St.
Here’s the news release on Saturday’s reopening:
News Release
www.piercecountywa.org
www.twitter.com/pierceco
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2012
Sprinker’s new ice rink opens Saturday
After an eight-month renovation, Pierce County will open the new ice rink at Sprinker Recreation Center on Saturday, Jan. 28.
The $6.5 million project included a new roof, a new rink and refrigeration equipment for the 35-year-old facility in Spanaway. The ice rink portion of the building had been threatened with closure in 2010 due to structural concerns, but Executive Pat McCarthy and the County Council found a way to address critical needs with existing funding.
Doors open at 9 a.m. for an open house. County officials and a special guest – Olympic ice dancing silver medalist Ben Agosto – will deliver brief remarks at 10:30 a.m. before McCarthy drives the Zamboni through a ribbon across the ice, signaling the start of a new era of recreation at Sprinker. The public skate begins after the ceremony.
Someone explain how Pat and the County Council Found a way to spend 6and one half million on the Arena with no tax increases or taking from one of the other County Acounts.Oh by the way if there was money taken from the County acounts you can bet the Taxpayers will be asked to replenish those acounts Via more taxes.How about keeping books on how much money the users pay toward the costs the taxpayers are indebted for.
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I am just guessing the previous poster has not been following what has been going on over the past years. Sprinker is the number 1 public use faclity in Pierce County. Patrons use the place big time. A great facility that has a new life at last after just getting by on great employees and thousands of users who love the place. Well done! Some due diligence might be in order for poster ooksi.
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@sincere,
Funding comes from the portion of the real estate excise tax that’s dedicated to parks, as well as from a portion of rental car taxes that were dedicated to sports stadiums. Since the county doesn’t own a share of Cheney Stadium anymore, the Legislature amended the law to allow the money to be spent on amateur athletic facilities. As @belatrix notes, Sprinker is heavily used. http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/09/27/1842542/work-has-sprinker-on-track-for.html
Hunter George
Pierce County
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