HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-03-07, Page 12PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1990.
A unique bond in the community
BY USA BOONSTOPPEL
It doesn’t look like much. The
paint on the doors is peeling and
the floorboards are creaky in this
old-fashioned building. But the
Belgrave arena doesn’t need looks
for it’s a unique centre that houses
natural ice, is debt-free and bonds
the community of Belgrave togeth
er.
One of the most distinctive
features of the arena is its natural
ice. Unlike most arenas in Ontario
which require refrigeration and
expensive maintenance equipment,
all the Belgrave arena has is a 60
gallon water tank and air vents.
The arena gets its skating rink
through someone manually pulling
the tank around the cement surface
and continuously flooding the rink.
“It takes about three days steady to
get the ice in,’’ said John Freibur-
ger who helps his wife Anna, the
part-time hired caretaker of the
arena.
One full tank floods about one
layer of ice. But one layer is less
than a quarter of a millimetre thick
said Mr. Freiburger who has to
flood the ice hundreds of times
until it is about one and a half
inches thick. But once the weather
is cold enough, a couple of boys
come out to help with the monoton
ous flooding. This year, Shawn
Logan and Rob Anderson volun
teered for the job and received free
ice time as a reward.
Once the ice is frozen in place it
is up to Mother Nature to ensure
that the ice doesn’t melt away for
there are no technological means to
stop the ice from liquifying. The
temperature inside the arena can
only be minimally controlled by
Iceman
Flooding the Belgrave arena is done the old-fashioned way shows John Freiburger who is pulling a
60-gallon tank around the rink. One tank will do one layer of ice which is less than a quarter of a
millimetre thick.
large vents lining the outside of the
building. “We like to leave all the
vents open when we can but when
the weather gets milder we close
them to keep the cold in,” said Ken
Hopper, a volunteer at the arena.
Yet, the natural ice can with
stand temperatures up to plus two
degrees and still be skateable for a
while. But if the sun is shining on
the roof and after an hour of
skating with the lights on inside the
building “it might get wet on top if
the temperature is above one
degree,” said Mr. Freiburger. “It
has to get up to three or four
degrees Celsius before the ice will
turn into water.”
Other than fluctuating tempera
tures, there aren’t many problems
to taking care of the arena if it is
cleaned off regularly. “If the ice
surface isn’t scraped properly the
snow on the ice turns to slush when
you flood it and creates bumps,”
said Mr. Freiburger.
Forget the image of a tractor
cleaning off the ice in this arena for
it is scraped off with shovels. It
may seem like a lot of work but in
Belgrave when something needs to
be done, people will do it. And so
after a hockey game a few players,
the coach and maybe a parent who
is watching will grab a shovel and
start circling the arena, scraping
the snow into the centre. Then with
combined muscle, the group will
shove the snow towards the rear
door where it is simply thrown
outside. There are no tractors, no
gas fumes and no expensive equip
ment. All Belgrave uses is some
old-fashioned shovels and some
human energy.
These snow-shovelling chains
are part of another special feature
of the Belgrave arena - the arena
bonds the community together.
Working side by side, the volun
teers that shovel out the arena are
part of a long list of volunteers that
includes hockey coaches, conces
sion booth cooks, maintenance
crews, turkey supper hosts and
fundraising chairpersons that are
all united in their common goal to
maintain a successful arena for
their use.
“The arena is a focal point for
the community,” said Glen Coul-
tes, a Morris Township farmer who
Continued on Page 13
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