A COOL CONCEPT

PALMER — Santa provided the skates. The combination of Mother Nature and the city supplied the ice.

For the past several weeks, local ice skaters have been taking advantage of a makeshift outdoor ice rink that has been constructed just outside of the Palmer Ice Arena.

The rink, the product of an effort lead by Palmer City Council member and hockey coach Brad Hanson, has been the sight of various pond hockey games and skating —all for free.

No one has taken advantage of this free ice more than brothers Dylan and Tyler Jackson.

The Jackson boys, who, along with their family, moved to the Valley from Colorado a couple of months ago, had no experience skating or playing hockey prior to the creation of the outdoor rink.

But when the boys saw Hanson laying down ice with a hose from their house across the street, skates immediately skyrocketed to the top of their Christmas lists.

“We saw them putting on the water and then using the Zamboni on it,” said Dylan Jackson, 10. “We got excited. The only bad part was we didn’t have skates.”

But come Christmas Day, underneath their tree the boys found pairs of hockey skates and sticks, and promptly ventured out to test the ice.

“We’ve been out here every day since Christmas, usually for two to three hours,” said 12-year-old Terry Jackson. “We’ll probably be out here today until dinner or it starts to get dark.”

The use of the rink — such as the experience of Terry and Dylan — is exactly what Hanson had in mind when he started to flood the rink.

“We’ve been wanting to do this for awhile so kids could get out there and get more skating,” Hanson said. “There aren’t many lakes out here, so we wanted to make a place where kids could skate outdoors.”

Hanson said he hopes an outdoor rink will be a permanent wintertime fixture at the Palmer Ice Arena. Someday, he would like to install lights and other amenities that will attract more skaters.

“We would like to see more [skaters] out here,” Hanson said. “We just got a late jump on it. We started back when it first got cold, but then it warmed up and that threw off our plans for a little bit.”

As with most outdoor ice rinks, the new outdoor slab has some flaws. The ice is a little choppy in some parts, which Hanson attributes to an uneven surface the ice was frozen on. Every once in awhile a puck will be lost over the boards, which are made of plowed snow.

But every issue has its fix.

A lost puck leads to a venture through the snow. The choppy ice is remedied by an occasional Zamboni run by Hanson. And on Christmas Eve, car headlights of a group of skaters illuminated the ice rink.

David Jackson, Dylan and Terry’s father, said the free ice is a great opportunity for the community, although he hasn’t seen his boys much since Christmas.

“When we saw them dumping water over there I called up the rink and they said it was open to anybody,” David Jackson said. “I think it’s great. They boys were asking for skates for Christmas and Santa found them hockey skates. For the most part, they go out there and we don’t see them for three to four hours.”

As for the boys, who on Sunday afternoon were again out on the ice as the sun slowly started to make its decent over the horizon, they plan to continue their skating routine until school returns to session next week.

“It’s cold, fun and gets you excited,” Terry said.

“Out here is the only place we skate.”