RINK MAINTENANCE: SMALL CHANGES, BIG IMPACT by Robb Olexin
H
AS RINK MAINTENANCE gotten away from your crew? I can relate. Early in my career, as a rink opera-
tor, I took over a neglected facility that was lacking in sales and successful ice pro- grams. One of my first tasks as operator was to meet with the arena board of directors.
In preparation, I made a list of all the problems I observed in the arena. Some of these included: the bowl effect on the ice, areas on the dasher boards where sweaters and hockey sticks could get caught, black marks on the dasher boards, and dirty glass.
Next, I developed a written plan that incorp- orated a budget and positive changes that could be made to operations staff hours.
I handed my list and plan to the board at our meeting, telling them that I wanted them to absorb my findings and would check back with them for feedback at our next meeting.
At our follow-up meeting, to my surprise, the directors shared that they were unaware of many of the deficiencies I detailed and were impressed with my suggested remedies. Tey agreed to allow me an extra three hours a week for ice shaving and an extra 15 minutes of edging every night, and they also gave me $1,000 to use in any way I desired to improve the arena’s condition.
I took full advantage of their offerings. For one month, my crew and I edged nightly and were able to get the corners of the rink down a full two inches. We shaved hard every week. Tese steps brought our ice back to flat at an even one-and-one-quarter inches throughout.
With a portion of the money from the board, I bought heavy-duty glass cleaner (we had tempered glass) and some cleaner that worked great on the white facing of our dasher boards. I used our skate guards at non-peak times, while still
paying them, to clean only half the rink’s white boards (the half the public and my board of directors saw when they walked into the rink). I also had our operations staff continue the dasher cleaning every free moment they could (without getting any pucks in the head).
With most of the remaining money, I bought three new Zamboni blades. Tis allowed us to change the blades more often, rather than ration them until the monthly visit from our blade sharpener. It also enabled us to provide a better ice surface for our customers.
I spent the last $60 on screws and went around the whole perimeter of the rink replacing any missing screws in the facing and kick plate. Tis made the rink safer, as it eliminated opportunities for sticks or sweaters to get snagged.
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