‘Focal point’ for downtown Arlington Heights: Ice rink set to open in November

A planned outdoor ice skating rink that will close a street and be marketed as a new attraction to downtown Arlington Heights is set to be installed a month from now, weather permitting, officials said.

Arlington Heights village and park district officials are working “very quickly” on preparations for the 40-by-80-foot mechanically-chilled rink so that it can be in place for the Nov. 27 tree-lighting ceremony, said Village Manager Randy Recklaus.

The rink will be on Eastman Street between Arlington Heights Road and Evergreen Avenue, and just south of North School Park — site of the annual tree lighting and holiday decorations.

Officials say the initial pilot project, formalized in an intergovernmental agreement inked by the village board this week and the park board last week, has the potential to draw more people to the holiday lights and generate more activity on the north side of downtown.

The attraction will be marketed as “Skate on Eastman” — tentatively set for Nov. 28 to Feb. 15 — and could be spun off into additional event programming in future years, with the possibility of turning the street into a permanent or semi-permanent plaza.

“The idea is to promote Eastman as a location for activities within our community,” Recklaus said. “It really has the benefit of being a focal point for the northern side of our downtown so that we can get more people to more parts of our downtown during more times of the year. We want to be a four-season downtown.”

Under the agreement, the park district will install the rink atop a leveling platform (to account for curvature of the roadway), operate it, collect fees from users, and schedule events there. Portable bathrooms will also be set up.

The village will shut down the street and install physical barriers, signage and security cameras. The municipality will also extend electricity from the nearby public parking garage to light the rink, and provide water to make the ice.

The village is also contributing $45,000 to offset the park district’s year one costs to construct and operate the facility — currently estimated at roughly $240,000, a park district official confirmed Tuesday.

Both agencies will be going “hard and heavy” to secure sponsorships and grant monies, Recklaus said.

Though supportive of the effort to attract more activity to the north side of the downtown, Trustee Bill Manganaro on Monday pressed Recklaus for details about the increased costs, especially as the village’s obligation was originally estimated at $15,000 when trustees reviewed the proposal in July.

“Certain things are ending up being more expensive than the initial research indicated, and so they asked us for a further contribution to kind of help balance that off,” Recklaus said. “The additional phases very well could cost the village a considerable amount of money, and those are things we’ll have to figure out if we want to continue with this or not.”

After the winter, village and park district officials are expected to evaluate how the pilot program went and consider putting up a second rink so that ice skating and hockey could occur at the same time. That would likely require additional power — from 200 amps to 600 amps — along with a transformer and meter, officials said.

Another possibility is a permanent pavilion roof structure, which would protect the rink from the sun and rain.

For now, officials are hoping for temperatures around 30 degrees to help the chiller convert the water into ice, though the rink can eventually operate with temperatures as high as 50 degrees.

“We think that it will be like a Norman Rockwell painting, with the synergy with the holiday lights that we have in the wintertime,” Recklaus said.

cplacek@dailyherald.com