CALDWELL, Idaho — Downtown Caldwell's Winter Wonderland is coming together — with their opening day just a few days away staff are building the beloved ice skating ribbon.
- The building of the rink is more than just a structure, it also involves science.
- Staff added the final touches to the rink before adding water to create ice.
- The opening day for the ice skating ring will be Nov. 22.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
It's hard to think about the holidays in the Treasure Valley without mentioning the Winter Wonderland is downtown Caldwell and preparations for the opening day are well underway — including efforts to build the iconic ice ribbon at Indian Creek Plaza.
"There are four miles of black tubing underneath and all this white cover piping is what we call a brine," said Caldwell facility manager Corey Turner.
Turner took me behind the scenes where, it turns out, a lot of science is involved to keep the ice skate-able all season long.
"If you would've told me 6 years ago that I was going to be doing this, I would've laughed at you," said Turner
It starts with pipes all over the cement base to help control the base temperature, keeping the ice cold and fresh even on warmer winter days
Since the ribbon started 6 years ago, Turner and his team have worked tirelessly to make sure opening day is perfect and that means double-checking the pipes and, most importantly, the temperature.
"It doesn't magically happen it's a process," said Turner
Just this week they built the surrounding structure for the ribbon and will soon add water over top to start the ice-making process.
"The water department comes down and helps us and what we do is we take garden hoses and we sprinkle garden hoses to find mist so we can build up the ice and it will be about 2 inches out there and it takes about 10,000 gallons of water," said Turner.
The job of filling the rink takes hours, and the staff stays until 2 a.m. to ensure everything is filled — but the hard work pays off when staff see families making memories on the ice all season long.