The roof is going up, the floor is stripped down to dirt and a new ice rink floor soon will be built at Sprinker Recreation Center.
Gone is the leaky, rusty roof where water dripped onto the ice, causing pits. The failing refrigeration system and rink floor have been removed.
The $6.5 million remodel of the deteriorating Sprinker Ice Arena is about one-quarter complete and expected to be finished in time to open for skaters on Jan. 2.
The arena, built with the rest of the center in 1976, closed in June. Work started a month later with the gutting of much of the building. Signs of new life are now beginning to take shape – most visibly with a new roof. Construction of the ice rink floor is expected to start in about two weeks.
Even more work than was planned will be completed now that the project has received a $400,000 boost from the 1 percent tax on car rentals traditionally used for public sports stadiums.
The Pierce County Council recently approved spending $400,000 of its car rental tax money on Sprinker. It is considering using the remaining $400,000 for parks maintenance over the next several years.
The Legislature this year amended the tax with Sprinker in mind so that the entire amount – not just 25 percent as had been the law – can be used for youth or amateur sport activities or facilities.
The Sprinker arena’s “been around a long time, giving good service to our community,” said Rep. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, who spearheaded the change. “We need to get it renovated to continue to do that. Our county needed options to renovate it.”
Last year, 294,029 people used the ice arena, tennis courts and other attractions at the Spanaway facility, including 88,055 users of the ice arena for public skating, figure skating, hockey and classes.
With the added $400,000, the county will replace the roof that extends from the rink to the adjacent offices and foyer, and replace the heating and ventilation systems for that area.
The Legislature’s change makes it easier for Pierce County to spend the $800,000 it had accumulated in rental car tax money. Since the county swapped its stake in Cheney Stadium to the City of Tacoma in 2008, the county had no stadium to spend the tax on.
“We want to do as much as we can (at Sprinker),” said Mike Poier, construction division manager for Pierce County. “We have said all along there is much more than $6.5 million worth of work to be done at this facility.”
For example, there’s enough money to install new dasher boards around the perimeter of the rink but not to replace the old blue electric hockey scoreboard.
For a while, it appeared the ice arena would be closed for safety reasons after engineers pointed out structural deficiencies and other problems last year. Building official Gordon Aleshire changed his mind after a new engineering report concluded the roof could withstand another winter.
Ice arena users rallied for improvements at public meetings and with phone calls and emails to elected leaders. The County Council approved a request from County Executive Pat McCarthy’s office to spend $6.1 million to save the facility.
The project was cut back from previous plans that called for a building-wide overhaul at a cost of $28 million to $34 million. Work will include sealing the arena from the rest of the building so the rink’s mechanical systems can handle the humidity from the ice and screen it from other areas of the center.
The cost for the rink floor and refrigerator equipment is about $1 million, Poier said.
The floor will be 16ß inches thick with warm water pipes, insulation, cold water pipes, concrete and a 1ß-inch layer of ice on top. The ice temperature will be set at 20 to 22 degrees, with at most a half-degree variation over the entire 201-by-85-foot rink, said Steve Kathman, project superintendent for the general contractor, Pease Construction Inc. of Lakewood.
The temperature control eliminates hard and soft spots in the ice that were a problem with the old rink and its refrigeration system.
Quinna Rogers, president of Lakewood Winter Club, said members of the youth and adult U.S. Figure Skating club are looking forward to practicing and competing at their home arena without the old problems, such as water puddles on the ice marked off by cones.
Figure skating and hockey programs have moved for now to the Puget Sound Hockey Center, a private facility on Tacoma’s Tideflats. Public skating won’t resume until the Sprinker arena reopens.
“We’re definitely anxious to get back into Sprinker,” Rogers said. “We’re looking forward to stable ice – ice that we know that we can depend on.”
Steve Maynard: 253-597-8647
steve.maynard@thenewstribune.com
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.