Assembly required for ice rink on Public Square

WILKES-BARRE — Piece by piece, assembly of the ice rink began on Public Square.

A crew of Department of Public Works employees prepped the area and connected the interlocking sheets of simulated ice to have it ready for the weekend.

“We’re going to install today and tomorrow. If there are no issues, we’re going to have an open skate on Saturday at noon,” Mayor George Brown said Tuesday.

For a rink that wasn’t dependent upon cold weather, the snow and frigid temperatures during the past couple of weeks delayed the anticipated end of January opening. The sun shined brightly as the DPW crew spread and leveled sand on the stone slabs before laying down and hammering the sheets in place on the flat area where the city parks a mobile stage for events on the Square.

Barring any problems, the walled rink measuring 23 feet wide by 73 feet long should be finished ahead of the rain, ice and snow forecast for later this week, Brown said.

Skating is free and anyone taking to the ice must have their own skates, Brown said.

Brown has pitched the rink as a way to draw families and people downtown. “I think it’s going to be well received,” he said.

In December, Brown received approval from City Council to purchase the rink for $55,990 from Sport Resource Group of Edina, Minn. The expenditure was permitted under the tourism guidelines for spending the $37.1 million in American Rescue Plan money Wilkes-Barre received in pandemic relief funding.