A new Grand Forks winter attraction could open soon.
The Freezeway, an ice skating concept now being finalized on the Greenway, is scheduled for a grand opening Jan. 12, says project leader Nick Jensen. When completed, the Freezeway will be an ice skating rink designed as a pathway in which skaters cruise on a loop beneath strings of overhead lights.
Workers from HB Sound and Light were on-site Tuesday to finish stringing the lights above the rink. Even though temperatures that day had climbed somewhat from the deep cold that had settled over the region, employees said they still had to keep the strings of lights in their heated work truck to prevent them from stiffening up.
As a sign of just how cold it was, Jensen said the frigid weather actually made it "too cold to put down the ice" for the rink.
"We didn't want to freeze the pipe or the hydrant," Jensen said.
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He expected crews of volunteers to be out at the end of the week getting ice on the boards now in place just beyond the Grand Forks dike. If all goes as planned, the skating path should be open by next weekend.
The Freezeway project is funded by a grant amounting to more than $140,000 from the Knight Cities Challenge. That funding has covered the construction of the temporary skating path, which Jensen says is constructed for easy disassembly and storage at the end of winter. The grant also should cover the next season of operation.
Skaters who brave the outdoors this winter will have their pick of rinks near downtown Grand Forks. The seasonal Town Square rink should be open this weekend, according to Sarah Prout, executive director of the Downtown Development Association. This is the fourth year of the rink, which is put together by the DDA and sponsored by local businesses.
Both the Town Square rink and the Freezeway are free to use and open to the public.
The rink in the square is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Freezeway will be open daylight hours.
