The H-F Ice Arena is back in business. The $6.8 million renovation work is complete. The grand reopening is scheduled for Sunday, March 12.
Disaster struck at the ice arena, one of the Homewood-Flossmoor Park District’s major attractions, in November 2021 after the ice-making system failed. The park board immediately assessed the issues and decided to move forward with the project to get the facility reopened.
For 15 months the hockey teams and community members shifted gears, skating at other facilities while they waited for the H-F Ice Arena to reopen. Lyndsay Freeman, ice arena director, was able to save the 2021-22 hockey season by moving games to a facility in Kankakee. Other skaters found their way to rinks around the area for practice time.
Beverly Hofer of Alsip said the Radiance team had used the ice arena as its home ice.
“When we lost the ice, it was terrible,” she said. “We had to scramble for ice, we went out to Indiana. I’m so excited to have (the H-F rink) back open.”
There was a sigh of relief from the Glenwood Figure Skating Club when it was able to have 125 skaters at its Cupid Classic at the rink on Sunday, Feb. 12, just three days after the ice was declared ready for skaters.
“This has been our home rink. We, United States Figure Skating, consider this our arena. We’re very, very glad it’s open,” said May Wiza, president of the Glenwood Figure Skating Club. The club will be hosting the annual Lady Bug competition, a four-day event, at the ice arena in April. Wiza is expecting 350 skaters from throughout the United States for this sanctioned United States Figure Skating competition.
Wiza said for more than 35 years the competition was held at the H-F Ice Arena, until 2022 when it moved to Kankakee.
“We’re delighted to be back,” Wiza said.
The rink held its first two-hour open skate session on Sunday, Feb. 19.
Mickahlo Armbruster, 11, was one of the first skaters at the ice arena. She said “it was sad” when the rink shut down. Her brother Bradley, 10, was anxious to get back to hockey.
Matt Bergeron of Flossmoor brought his three children to the rink. While it was closed, the kids switched to other sports, but his sons are ready to get back to the rink to carry on the hockey tradition.
Miles Tanner, 6, of Flossmoor got his first taste of skating in winter 2022 at the park district’s outdoor skating rink at Flossmoor Park. But the weather didn’t give the outdoor ice rink a chance this year, so Ann Tanner brought her son to the ice arena and shared his excitement for the reopening.
The park district’s planned activities and lessons will resume March 6. In the meantime, the ice arena is hosting 28 games for the Northwest Hockey League, the league that H-F Ice Arena’s house hockey team skates with.
Construction in 1974
In 1974, Homewood-Flossmoor High School District 233 deeded a 4.6-acre site to the park district for the $1.5 million ice arena. The facility had an update in 1995.
As Americans became more conscious of the environment, the ice arena’s ice-making system would need to be replaced. The park district was using the R-22 coolant that is believed to be one of the substances causing depletion of the ozone layer. It was getting more difficult for the park district to find a supply of R-22, commonly known as Freon.
The park district board first started considering its options in 2017. In 2020, the board hired a firm for preliminary engineering services for suggestions on the mechanicals of the refrigeration system. The work was to be part of a grant application for state funding for a Park and Recreation Facility Construction Grant available through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The grant would fund a portion of the work.
The meltdown
In November 2021, just as the hockey season was beginning, the H-F Ice Arena icemaking system broke down. The piping system under the ice was leaking. It didn’t matter how much refrigerant staff used, the ice was soft and not ready for skating.
The park board had hoped the state grant would help with the needed upgrades, but the meltdown happened before the grant application was considered. Park commissioners decided to move forward and find a way to pay for the upgrades.
Getting the rink ready
By late February 2022, the park district had a team of engineers, an architect and a construction manager with a support team on the project. In addition to the work in the ice arena, a building was being designed to house the new mechanicals operating the refrigeration system.
Parks Executive Director Debbie Kopas, recommended the project be broken into several bid packages “in an effort to expedite the project and reduce lead times.” The board bid on the ice system early into the process to make certain that all the necessary parts would be in house to keep the job moving.
W.B. Olson, Inc. of Northbrook was hired as the construction manager. Williams Architects handled the design work. American Arena won the bid on the ice refrigeration system, concrete pour and new dasher boards.
In March, park district workers removed the sand, old insulating foam, plastic vapor barrier and pipes from the bigger rink. The Studio Rink required a crew to come in with jackhammers to break up the concrete flooring of the rink.
Over many months, the team met weekly with park district staff to bring all the project’s pieces together.
“This is a big deal. It really Is,” said Pete Pietrusiewicz, the project superintendent for W.B. Olson, general contractor on the job. “You get one chance at it.”
Robot assists on the job
The park district used a new refrigeration system recommended by American Arena. It layers a heating system covered by sand, then the cooling system was laid on top and covered by sand. That is topped with Styrofoam insulation. Rebar was screwed into the Styrofoam to make certain the cooling pipes didn’t shift when the final concrete layer was poured. American Arena was able to get all materials despite supply chain issues.
In the NHL-size rink, there are 12 miles of cold piping.
On Oct. 12, a crew of 25 men was ready for the concrete pour in the NHL-sized rink. Lasers scoped out the space making certain the area remained level. A job once done by hand now had the assist of robots pouring the concrete in the massive area.
Pipes filled with concrete were tethered at one end to trucks from Ozinga Concrete and at the other end to the robot. The robot moved along the rink delivering concrete on demand – about 70 yards an hour. The process went on for about five hours and finishers smoothed out the surface using machines and their own efforts.
Then the concrete and the inner workings were left to settle for several weeks. With the concrete cured, it was time for the icemaking handled by Andrew Presnak, head of ice arena maintenance, and other parks employees.
White paint was dissolved into the water that would make the first layer of ice. That covered the gray concrete. Then staff hand-painted the various markings and the H-F Park District logo in the center of the rink. Once that dried, crews started spraying layer after layer making ice to a nearly two-inch thickness.
The final product
“The ice arena repair and renovation project included a new refrigeration system, a building addition to house the new equipment, new HVAC and dehumidification systems, new dasher boards in both arenas, a party area in the studio rink, a new Zamboni room with upgraded drainage and more,” Kopas said.
“Our architect and construction manager understood that every day we were closed, we were losing the opportunity to get skaters back on the ice, and they committed early on to getting out to bid as quickly as possible, even when it meant bidding the project in multiple phases,” Kopas said.
She is especially proud of the park district staff going above and beyond expectations.
“Our incredible team of staff members did everything in their power to save time and money on the project” by doing ancillary projects and repairs that let the contractors focus on the bigger items, she said. The ice arena team developed updated décor, a new logo, repaired bleachers and painted just about every surface.
A safety feature is netting in front of the bleachers in the large rink, and Kopas said the improvements in the Studio Rink that give parents the chance to be with skaters, “has already been a big hit.”
“While this project was a huge challenge, I am extremely proud of our team for their insight, creativity, diligence, hard work and positive attitudes throughout both the good times and the frustrating times. We couldn’t have had such a successful project without them,” Kopas added.