ROSEVILLE, Minn. — This week has been warmwhich isn’t great for winter activities, but skaters and hockey players have been able to enjoy a refrigerated outdoor rink in Roseville.
People can lace up their skates at the Oval, even when the temperature is around 50 degrees.
Sam Moen got some ice time Thursday before his hockey practice for Mounds View High School, where he is a senior goalie.
“I just love the game of hockey,” Moen said. “I just love being on the ice, just playing.”
Anna Sharratt was there for her son’s 14th birthday and taught her 3-year-old daughter, Sylvie, to skate.
“You have to start marching or stomping, and from there they do a push,” Sharratt said. “Naturally, [she’s the] third child, she has her own ideas.”
The Oval ice facility is cooled with underground pipes, allowing skating even during the warmest winter periods.
“We just had a customer call today asking if we would be open,” said Kevin Elm, superintendent of the Roseville Skating Center. “They come from an hour’s drive away because the ice on many outdoor rinks is currently too soft. Now that the warm weather is on the way, we expect a record number of visitors in the next week and a half.”
Elm worked for Roseville for 30 years. He tries not to take any of it for granted.
“Everyone smiles, which makes my job easy,” Elm said.
David Schuman
