Photo from January 2018.

A recent addition to Caldwell Park in Pella during the winter is the conversion of the shelter house into an ice skating rink.

Pella Community Services Director Jeanette Vaughan says an extended cold stretch is needed to build the ice for residents and visitors to enjoy, and it might be some time until there is enough for skating.

“Our ice rink is weather dependent — we do not have a chiller system, so we do need to wait for an extended period of time with daytime and nightime temperatures below freezing before we can build ice, so we keep an eye on the 14 day forecast and we just try to see if we have four or five days if we have those temperatures below freezing.”

Once the rink is up and running, skate rentals are available at the Pella Community Center during their regular hours. Vaughan says the earliest they could be up and running at this point would be mid-January, but that is dependent on a longer stretch of frigid air.

Read more about the Caldwell Park Ice Rink at the City of Pella website.