The future of the Ames/Iowa State Ice Arena is uncertain.

The City of Ames and ISU hired VSC Sports consulting firm from Sherman Oaks, Calif. to help decide whether to renovate the ice arena or construct a new one, said Rick Ertz, recreation superintendent for the City of Ames.

Members of the public are invited to meet with one of the consultants at two community meetings to express their opinion. The first will take place on Thursday, May 2 at noon in Room 234 at the Memorial Union. The second meeting will be at 7 p.m. in the Ames City Hall council chambers.

The ice arena is owned by ISU and maintained by the City of Ames, according to Nancy Carroll, director of the Ames Parks and Recreation Department. Carroll is one co-chair of the committee considering the ice arena’s present problems.

When the ice arena was built 17 years ago, it was constructed using a lot of used material, said Carroll.

“The arena is still functioning, but the facility has worn out. It is limping along,” said Carroll. “It’s fine, but it’s not going to be fine forever,” she added.

The refrigeration unit and pipes were secondhand when the arena was built, Ertz said. Now there are doubts about the capabilities of maintaining the ice, he added.

Ertz also said that the floor has moved and is heaving. “We’re in the process of evaluating what needs to be done,” he said. The dasher boards are old and need to be replaced.

The floor has made it difficult to maintain a smooth ice surface, said Dean of Students Kathleen MacKay, who is an ice arena committee co-chair. This makes it especially hard for figure skaters, she said.

A variety of groups such as public skating and hockey teams use the arena, MacKay said. “The arena is used 18 hours a day during the hockey season,” MacKay said.

“The cost of a new ice arena could be $1 to $2 million, and we don’t have that kind of money. We want to look at this before the arena becomes a big problem,” MacKay said.

“When the arena was built, it was built by a private group,” MacKay said. Its condition is becoming precarious, she added.

“The insulation needs to be improved upon,” Ertz said, “because water condenses in the roof and fills the lights with moisture.”

According to Mike Childs, the Ames Fire Chief, the moisture in the light fixtures is not a problem.

“If the moisture didn’t evaporate from the lights, and if the lights shorted out, the circuit breakers would take care of it,” he said.

However the lack of insulation does affect the ability of the facility to maintain the ice, Ertz said.

“The question is, are we going to throw thousands and thousands of dollars at renovating the arena?” MacKay said.