Moses Lake Council approves temporary ice rink fix

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council voted unanimously at Tuesday’s meeting to rent replacement equipment to keep the Larson Recreation Center ice rink functional. 

The heat exchanger, also called the evaporator, is a part of the system that creates the ice, is leaking, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Doug Coutts told the council. 

“It is not like some people think, (that) the Zamboni drives around and makes ice behind it on the ground,” Coutts told the council. “That doesn't actually happen. The floor is dropped below zero (degrees Fahrenheit) and then the water freezes to the floor. So this item is a very important piece in the system.” 

The rink’s ice system is 30 years old, Coutts said, purchased 20 years ago from a hotel and casino in Reno, Nevada. Two compressors and the control system were replaced two years ago, he said.  

The city’s maintenance workers have been maintaining the heat exchanger correctly, Coutts added, but in older machinery, one leak begets another. 

“When you patch a leak in one spot, another leak opens because you’ve increased pressure to that section,” he said. “That’s what we found. We have multiple leaks in the heat exchanger.” 

The ice rink usually opens about the beginning of December, but the mechanical issues and warm weather have pushed that back indefinitely, according to an announcement from the city. It usually stays open through February.  

The Moses Lake Youth Hockey Association counts on the use of the rink for games, practices and tournaments, MLYHA Board member Dan Niehenke told the council. 

“When we’re forced to cancel or forgo a weekend of regular games, the city and the community loses foot traffic from approximately 50 families over the course of the weekend,” Niehenke said. “This translates to missed opportunities of about $6,000 in revenue that those families are bringing in. If (it’s) a tournament weekend … three of which are hosted by Moses Lake Youth Hockey, that figure jumps dramatically. We conservatively estimate that this year’s upcoming 14U tournament, which is in a couple of weeks, will bring an additional $61,000 into the community.”  

Delaying the availability of the rink would jeopardize Moses Lake’s ability to host the tournament, he said. 

Renting the equipment is the fastest option, Coutts said. 

“From when we say go and they drive it over here, it is about three to four days away, I was told,” he said. “So, if we say go on Dec. 1, it could be here by the end of the week, and then we would have three months of time.” 

The use of the equipment would cost the city about $107,000 for those three months, Coutts said. 

Council Member Deanna Martinez asked if the money would come out of the general fund. 

“I believe it would be coming out of the general fund initially,” Coutts said. “Two years ago, when we did this we did get reimbursed by the insurance company. We’ve just started a claim on this; I don’t know if it will happen … This is a non-budgeted expense, so it would be a ding.” 

The ice rink is subsidized by the city, Coutts explained; user fees, including those paid by the hockey association, don’t pay enough in themselves to operate it. Besides replacing equipment, the city also pays a hefty electric bill for the rink, because it has to be kept continuously cold, he said. 

“You can’t just shut it down when everybody leaves,” he said. “You’ve got to keep it running through the night and make sure that it stays cold, because if you let it go, all of a sudden we’ve got a swimming pool instead of a skating rink. Those are parameters that we can’t change.” 

The other option would be to pull the unit out and repair it, which would cost $180,000, Coutts said. 

“(If we) take it out, (it would be) six to eight weeks to repair it, bring it back and then plug it back in,” he said. “But once we plug it back in, we might find that there’s another problem in a different part of the system that we haven’t repaired yet.” 

A completely new system would cost $350,000-$400,000, Coutts said, and would take 10-14 weeks just to get the system to Moses Lake. 

Martinez suggested going forward with the rental for the short term and seeking a grant from the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee to replace the entire system next year. 

“We don't want to lose our season, especially when we have kids ready to play some hockey and compete against other teams,” she said. “So I support the idea of a temporary solution, but looking long-term, that needs to be replaced … so that we don't have to be worrying about this year after year. I imagine next year something else is going to happen if we don't replace the system.”