Peru committee hears ice rink improvement proposals

While Illinois Valley residents are enjoying the summer fun of county fairs, carnivals and baseball games, Peru city officials have been planning winter activities – starting with its ice rink.

Peru aldermen discussed two proposals for the Washington Ice Rink during Monday’s Public Services Committee meeting.

Peru was awarded a $600,000 Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development Grant, a program administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, to make improvements around the Washington Park ice rink and make it available to the public more often. The ice rink previously required specific weather conditions to go into operation, limiting the number of days it was available.

The city will match the grants with a 50/50 contribution.

The city has received two proposals for the construction of the ice rink, including all of the materials such as a training for seasonal setup, a manual ice resurfacer and refrigeration systems.

The city has received proposals from CIMCO Refrigeration Inc. and Custom Ice Inc. Both proposals included the same materials, Director of Parks and Recreation Adam Thorson said.

Thorson said CIMCO included a carbon dioxide method of cooling/freezing, while Custom Ice used a freon method.

Custom Ice’s proposal came in at $584,000, about $1.2 million less than CIMCO Refrigeration Inc. Thorson said CIMCO has been asked to revise its proposal to include the freon method instead of the carbon dioxide method of freezing.

Last year, the rink never opened.

With temperatures reaching the high 30s and 40s for most of December, the conditions were not ideal for setting up the rink. By the time temperatures became ideal, it snowed, and city workers focused on the road.

It has to be colder than 32 degrees to freeze the water, and it needs to be cold enough for a duration of time.

Thorson said a proposal likely will be approved sometime in the next few meetings. Once approved, materials could potentially be shipped, delivered and installed around February.

“Discussion will be had on if the city will try the ‘old school’ ice rink again early this winter, or if we choose to wait for the chillers to be installed in the later part of winter 2025,” Thorson said.