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Next winter, more Hinsdale parks may have ice rinks
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Updated: April 1, 2013 2:02AM
HINSDALE — Hinsdale’s Parks and Recreation Department is considering building smaller rinks in different parks next winter.
For the past several years, the Parks Department has been using Burns Field, at Madison and Hickory streets, because the park has space for two rinks, one for figure skating and one for playing hockey. Burns also has lights and a warming house which would seem to make it the ideal setting for outdoor skating.
But the topography of the park is bowl-shaped, rather than level, said Parks and Recreation Director Gina Hassett. So when park workers put down the vinyl liners and begin filling them with water, the depth ranges from 3 inches to a foot.
“It’s just shy of a swimming pool,” Hassett said. The size and depth of the rink means the ice-making task takes longer.
“It takes a day or two to set it up, a day or two to fill it, and five to seven days to freeze,” Hassett said.
In contrast, residents set up and froze a smaller ice rink in Melin Park in December and skaters have been using it since then.
Hassett and the Park and Recreation Commission discussed setting up smaller rinks next year in Peirce and Veeck parks, which might be easier to freeze. The two parks have lights, but no warming hut.
“What’s more important?” Hassett asked, “After two years with no ice, people might be more willing to accept change.”
