December 17, 2021 – Hartford, WI – Every year, City Hall in Hartford start getting calls around the holiday break on when the ice-skating rinks in Veterans Park and Willowbrook Park will be open.
Please understand this is entirely based on the weather.
We need a few weeks of consistent below freezing weather to have the ground get solid prior to setting up the rinks.
Then we need a solid week of really cold weather before ice will set. With the warmer than normal weather so far in December, this could easily be happening in January or even February.
This issue with warmer Winters is why some communities have given up on ice rinks. So unfortunately, the ideal time of ice skating during the Christmas break might not happen again this year and we will be hoping for colder days in January to hopefully make this
happen.
The Parks Department staff spent most of Tuesday morning patching and repairing the Veterans Park ice rink liner in the Recreation Center gymnasium. There were about 50 holes to patch.
Replacing this liner would be around $1,300. When it is set up it is important for the public to stay off it and also do not throw heavy rocks on it to try and break up the ice. When we get several inches of frost into the ground followed by consecutive nights with single digit temperatures, Parks staff will begin to flood and make ice. Please follow all posted signs concerning the ice rink and skating.