The cold truth is that the ISU/Ames Ice Arena is not going to last forever, and that is why members of the university and city community are working to find a way to build its replacement.

No one knows when it will go. It could be today, it could be months from now.

But the building has little hope of lasting much longer than that.

In fact on Tuesday night, Parks and Recreation Director Nancy Carroll told the City Council that the rink is on its deathbed.

After labeling the ice an “essential component in the community,” she added, “We’re fortunate we haven’t lost the ice.”

Operates despite poor conditions

Regardless of its weak condition, the rink continues to run with activity more than 20 hours each day. The little 18-year-old building, which was intended to be a practice facility only, is doing more than anyone would have thought it could. It holds class and figure skating training, and it hosts hockey practice and games for the Ames and Iowa State ice clubs.

Although it keeps youthful hours, the facility grows older and in need of more maintenance.

“It’s like trying to use a Volkswagen Bug as a CyRide bus; it’s just gonna wear out and that’s what is happening,” said ISU Hockey Coach Al Murdoch.

The problem is not in recognizing the fact that the building is deteriorating; the problem is in deciding how to deal with the dilapidated rink and where ice groups can find the money to fix it. This is something ice groups, the city and the university are trying to sort through before the building breaks down.

History of rink

Canadian-native Murdoch brought hockey to Ames in 1969. Until the 1972 construction of Hilton Coliseum, Ames puck chasers hailed their sticks and skates down to Des Moines for ice time.

Later, with Hilton as a game facility, hockey teams pushed their pucks on an outdoor rink north of Beyer Hall. Eventually the fickle Iowa winters wore on the players and they went indoors in 1979 with the construction of a practice arena south of campus, now called the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.

In the 1980s, Hilton became booked with too many events and the little practice arena was forced to become a competition facility. Because the small rink lacked the amenities of a contest facility like Hilton, the ISU hockey team was awarded with a Cyclone dressing room in 1982 and then generated enough money to add showers and a visitor dressing room three years later. Finally, in 1991, the concession stands were put into the arena’s lineup.

And, as Coach Murdoch said, the widespread use of the building is wearing it out.

“It’s hard to run a spectator facility in a practice facility,” he said.

The building has not been taken out of service at all for six years, while most skating facilities are closed one month of each year.

Searching for solutions

Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco has visions of how to solve the problem. He said the ice has not been thawed out of fear that the pipes won’t be able to re-freeze the water because of too many cracks and leaks. This thawing process is also something that should occur annually.

Tedesco said the facility has created an Alaskan-like permafrost underneath itself because of the non-stop use.

Rick Ertz, superintendent at the ice arena with Parks and Recreation, said consultants came to do a drilling and found the frost underneath the arena to be 11-12 feet deep. The frost build-up is a result of pipe arrangement in the existing facility. In newer arenas, heat grid systems are placed under the flooring so the frost does not grow into the ground.

Also, because the pipes are encased in sand, the ice above it must be thicker to prevent skates from puncturing the pipes.

Two years ago, Ertz said someone’s skate landed in such a way that it punctured a pipe and caused a leak.

In new rinks, the pipes are encases in concrete to secure the pipes. The nearly 12-inch ice exceeds the three-quarters to one and a half inches of ice that typically rests above the pipes.

“Worst in league”

Bill Ward, an assistant Cyclone hockey coach, has played for ISU and his team has toured the globe. He said ISU’s ice is “the worst in the league.”

Ward said it keeps getting thicker because the zamboni machine, used to resurface and smooth the ice, never cross-grinds the ice which shaves some height off the ice.

Rather, he said the arena’s zamboni only keeps smoothing it over by adding water and adding to its height. Ward said that approximately 8 inches of the kick plate, a yellow baseboard intended to take a beating from skates, should show. But at Ames/ISU Ice Arena, the kick plate is barely visible and in some areas it is completely hidden by more than 8 inches of ice.

Inconsistent ice

But shaving the ice is not feasible because of another problem. Although the ice is too thick in some areas, it is too thin in others. In some places the ice is only one inch deep above the dangerous sand-protected pipes.

This uneven distribution of thickness is accompanied by an uneven sheet. Heaving pipes have caused the ice to grow taller in the middle of the surface.

Kathy Thomas, figure skating representative for the “Ice is Nice Committee,” said the facility’s “sub-par” ice presents an unpleasant adjustment for girls who practice there. She said the skaters have to compromise their routings for the Ames/ISU rink and then have to adjust when they arrive at a contest that has quality ice.

She said during a figure skating testing session, one of the skaters withdrew because “she was afraid to skate on the ice” and was uncomfortable performing double and triple jumps on the uneven surface.

Murdoch said this inconsistency in the ice level created unpredictability for hockey players, as well. He said the combination of texture and buildup of ice sends the puck racing in unforeseeable directions.

Gordon Hester, an Arizona State skater, has played on the Cyclone surface the past two seasons.

“It’s definitely the worst rink in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA),” Hester said. “For a college program, you’d think it’d be a little better.”

Hester said the poor state of the structure “gives a great opportunity for injury.”

Heavy use a problem

Other breakdowns in the arena’s physique come from the large amount of trafficking in the area.

Ertz said user groups of the arena total 5,000 people, with 4,000 students participating in programs and services in addition to the ISU hockey team.

The other groups who use the facility include the Cyclone men’s junior varsity and women’s varsity hockey teams, Ames Minor Hockey League, Ames Figure Skating Club and the Adult Hockey League and ISU broomball.

The Plexiglas is loose on some sides of the ice where a player’s body has landed one too many times. Boards have been installed to reinforce specific places along the wall, while spectators who carefully examine the condition notice that some screws are moving with the force of the skaters who fly into it.

Darren Anderson, senior Cyclone hockey player, described the arena as a “rickety rackety” facility that does not accommodate the users’ needs. He pointed out that broomball played by the biggest league of its kind in the nation, and other users are too much for the facility.

“Right now we’re running down the rink,” he said. “The wear and tear is just too much.”

He said the bigger guys on the Cyclone team are hitting boards hard, and the boards are too short for some of the guys who slam into them.

Anderson said the widespread use calls for a bigger place where programs have room to grow.

Insufficient seating, time

Another problem Murdoch mentioned is the lack of seating.

Until recently, the arena’s capacity was set at 2,500. During the 1997-98 season, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department decreased the number twice, first to 1,600 and then to 1,100 only a few weeks later.

Murdoch said the rink turned away 200 to 300 people during matches held in November 1997 because of these limitations. The Parks and Recreation Department said the decrease in seating is simply in compliance with the fire code. Even so, the facility is again failing the needs of the community.

Though a new sheet of ice is the main concern right now, a fresh surface would not solve the Ames/ISU arena’s problem of scheduling.

With the current facility running all but three hours each day, Tedesco said, “Time is a major factor for everyone.”

Three user groups who are victim of the rink’s limited time slots are the figure skating club, women’s hockey and broomball participants. Figure skaters practice at 6 a.m., women’s hockey meets on Sunday mornings at 8 a.m., and students swing their brooms until 2 a.m.

VSC Sports Consultants, a firm specializing in the skating industry, completed a report that explored avenues ice users could take.

In the report, it said a dual ice facility would add 500 more hours of ice time, which would be divided between the various groups who purchase ice time. These groups include the Cyclone men’s, junior varsity and women’s hockey teams, the amateur hockey association, amateur figure skating and possibly adult hockey.

The report suggests 466 hours be sold to these groups each year, which a dual ice facility could provide.

These scheduling concerns force those involved to include the possibility of expansion in the given plans.

Funding woes

Getting all the money together to fix the problem with the existing ice surface presents the community, university and users with a challenge. The rink is owned by Iowa State University and is operated by the Parks and Recreation Department.

Last spring, ISU President Martin Jischke said it had become clear that the ice rink was “inadequate and something needed to be done.”

He said after examining the options, constructing a new facility was the “most desirable way to go.”

Jischke sent a letter to the then mayor, Larry Curtis, telling him the university’s interests to work with the city in order to develop a new facility. He said he told Curtis the university was ready to devote funds for a $3.7 million facility.

The university would be responsible for $2 million, $300,000 of which would be raised privately through the ISU Foundation and $1.7 million to be generated by student fees.

Jischke said he has spoken to ISU students, and there is a clear interest in the subject. He said he is optimistic they will support the issue.

The “Ice is Nice Committee” also met with Government of the Student Body President Rob Wiese. Murdoch said the meeting went well and he gathered that “support looks to be very positive from the students.”

Having commitment from the university, “Ice is Nice” went to the Ames City Council on Tuesday night to see if the Ames community could contribute the remaining $1.7 million for the project.

The issue was familiar to city representatives, and every one of the members favored the motion to authorize a special election that would add the hockey facility to the 1998 bond issue.

The special election will cost about $13,000 and will be financed by the ice users.

This $1.7 million dollar issue would demand approximately $7.62 annually from each family who owns a home assessed at $100,000. Thomas, of “Ice is Nice,” told the council that this is only half the cost of a large pizza per family each year.

“The city government is excited about the cooperative effort between the university, the student body and the residents of Ames to try to fulfill a recreational need in the community,” Tedesco said.

Several council members spoke up and said this was a good opportunity for the city to work with the university.

Representative Russ Cross said he supported the construction of a new rink and said the current facility is “pitiful and (the community) can do much better.”

Council Member Herman Quirmbach said he “strongly supports” having ice in the facility but suggested the possibility of a project that would meet another of the community recreational needs — an aquatic facility.

Tedesco said he now supports the idea of a wellness center that includes an ice surface and an aquatic center, as well as a flat surface for running and/ or basketball.

Tedesco said Mary Greeley Medical Center would involve itself in a creative package deal for a multipurpose facility that serves as a health and wellness center.

This idea requires additional funding and planning, and the ice rink might not make it until that work can be done. What’s more, the opportunity for the city to work with the university on this project could also die.

City Representative Ann Campbell said “the opportunity of a marriage right now with the university won’t last,” and this could be used as a “launchpad” for other projects.

Bond election planned

Now the council and the ice users prepare to host a bond election.

City Manager Steve Shainker said the council would also like to enter into a formal agreement with the university to work out details and finalize funding commitments.

Tedesco said bond issues are more difficult because they require 60 percent approval rather than a majority.

The other two issues up for a bond issue are a county justice center and a school levy. These issues have three different audiences; some people will be voting in all three elections.

Tedesco said with three issues before the community, passing an issue may be more difficult and depends on the priorities of the voters.

Contributing to the uncertain forecast for the issue is the time when the ice users hope to host the election.

The group is aiming for an election date of March 31, 1998, which is the earliest possible date. The challenge comes in getting students to remember to vote when they return from spring break.

However, the ice users view this date as an advantage because of the ACHA’s national tournament that will have taken place three weeks earlier at Hilton Coliseum. They hope the tournament will spark excitement about hockey and will still be fresh in the minds of people in the community.

In addition, the group is targeting students.

Murdoch attended the Government of Student Body Public Forum last night to ask for help with the new arena. He said he encouraged residence halls and greek houses to invite the hockey team to their floors to speak about how ISU students will benefit from a new rink.

Murdoch said a new sheet of ice “would be a place to have fun.”

If invited to floors, Murdoch said the ice users will pass out absentee ballots to register students to vote.

“We’re hoping to register 10,000 students by the end of February,” he said.

After spring break, Murdoch said they will go back out and remind those people to vote.

Pass or fail, the fact remains that the crumbling rink needs to be replaced. If the facility has to be maintained until an unknown date, improvements will have to be made and alternative plans will be sought.

The ice users, city and university community continue to gather their mental and financial resources to come up with the best possible solution before the arena melts down, be it today or two months from now.