Eau Claire (WQOW) - The dip in
temperature is good news for Chippewa
Valley residents itching
to dust off their ice skates. Eau Claire's
outdoor skating rinks will be opened Saturday.
"It's a perfect
activity for winter breaks, Christmas breaks, weekends, even evenings,"
said Meredith Wolf.
For Meredith, skating with her
children is a tradition; one they all look forward to each winter.
"We're really
excited that the rinks are open for the season. This is our first time out this
year and we're looking forward to many more days of fun winter skating,"
Wolf said.
The City of Eau Claire says Saturday will be the first
day skating rinks will be considered officially open, even though a few people
have already hit the ice. Warming houses will also open Saturday afternoon.
"We were slated to
open the outdoor skating rink season on December 26th. However, we had some
warmer weather earlier in December which made that pretty hard to do. But with
the last week or so we've had a nice cold snap and we're able to open on Saturday,
December 29th," said Chad Duerkop, Program Manager for the Eau
Claire Parks and Recreation Department.
Though it's difficult to project, the
city is hoping to get more use out of its 4 rinks than it did last year.
"Some years we're
open a full 12 or 13 weeks, you know, through early March. There are other
years where we're open like last year. I mean, I think we were open maybe a
total of four weeks. So this is very weather dependent. As long as our crews
can flood and have cold temperatures to create good ice, we will do that,"
Duerkop said.
To find out which skating rink is
closest to you and what hours it will be open, click here.
