Members of the Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association spoke to the Soldotna City Council on Wednesday night to ask for ice in the summer to use for hockey.
Tami Miller, a KPHA Booster Club Representative opened the conversation by stating that the association would like to use the ice rink throughout the summer.
She, alongside another board member, spoke to Soldotna Parks and Recreation Director Joel Todd last fall, but they were recently informed that he does not plan on putting in ice. The ice is set to be removed on April 8th and will not be put back until August 6th.
The KPHA did make it clear that they are willing to pay for the ice, and would even be okay if it would only be open in July, so long as it was open for the full month before tryouts in August.
“The issue is, is that our kids are required to try out for their competitive hockey teams the first week of August, and if they don’t have ice throughout the summer, they’re not prepared for those tryouts. Throughout the summer, many families travel to Anchorage or to the Valley or even out of state to attend hockey camps just to get their kids on the ice. They pay a lot of money to do that. We could be doing that for them here. And in fact, if it was in July, we could be enticing people from Anchorage in the Valley to come down here for hockey camps. We have several. Just ready, ready to sign on the dotted line and they say they will come down and hold hockey camps,” said Miller.
Ted Barton, the President of KPHA echoed what Miller said about the importance of having ice availability.
“We will be willing to work with you. Whatever. Our work can be done to make this happen, but it is a pretty big deal for the local hockey community. You know, keeps kids off their screens a lot. We can all appreciate that… I’ve had two [kids] and you know many of our players have gone on to play high level hockey high school, college and you know it’s it’s a good thing that we need to support,” said Barton.
Following their responses, a young hockey player by the name of Will Miller made his way before the council.
Six weeks ago, Will Miller broke his leg in a hockey game and is slowly working to regain his strength. While he has started being permitted to use a cane to walk, he still will not be able to skate for the rest of the season.
Miller, among many other hockey players, have to travel out of the community to be able to attend sports camps and clinics to keep his skills intact.
“A facility with year-round ice has been something I wish we had in our community for many years, but this summer having a facility with ice is no longer a wish, it’s a need. It will be especially important for me to be able to skate throughout the summer. In order to get my strength and agility back from this injury, so I can make a team when trades are held during the first week of August. Ice time is going to be a big part of being able to recover for me,” said Will Miller.
City Councilmember Linda Hutchings did mention that currently, there are some issues with the ice and the Freon they typically use. The issue, the specific Freon they use is not made anymore. On March 21st, an engineering firm will be coming to take a look at the refrigeration system and give a cost analysis.
“But we are actually having trouble with the system right now. And so running at the additional time right now has really big concerns for us because quite frankly, it could fail and we don’t want that. So we’re having the engineer come in to give us a report and to tell us the next steps. And that would be, you know, some of it is the next steps for the ice to preserve it for the regular season. But we’re we’ve heard you, we’re working towards it to make it happen,” said Hutchings.
The KPHA hopes to attend the next Soldotna Parks and Recreation meeting on March 7th, to try and gain more support for their cause.