More families enjoy skating at Courthouse Park

The rink opens at either 10 a.m. or noon through Jan. 6.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Daytime and holiday hours for the downtown ice skating rink have started to pay off.

The 42-by-85-foot rink, which opened Nov. 30 and operates through Jan. 13 in Courthouse Park, is offering daytime hours through the end of Christmas break, Jan. 6. But the rink has seen a spike in usage since last Thursday, the last school day for some kids, said Laura Bernal.

“As soon as school let out, we got an influx,” said Bernal, who works for Frozen Water LP, the Texas company operating the rink for the city of Warren. She said the most common age of skaters is middle and high school.

On Saturday, around 400 people paid $5 to skate as many hours as they wished, she said.

Monday — the first day of daytime hours on a weekday — seemed to be a popular attraction among families, with dozens of skaters at around 1 p.m. Starting Monday, the hours were 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., compared to 4 to 8 p.m. before that. The Saturday hours remain 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sundays continue to be noon to 7 p.m.

“A lot of larger cities have this but not so much smaller cities like this. Hopefully they’ll keep it coming back,” said Keith Stinson of Howland, who came skating Monday with his daughter, Heather, 11.

“It’s a nice thing to do during the holidays, something you can do with family,” he said.

“We come home every year, and it will be nice if we can come ice skating every year on Christmas Eve,” said Natalie Raiti Friedl of Charlotte, home visiting her mother, Marge Adams of Cortland.

“This is a great idea,” said Adams, who had also brought two other relatives from Canfield for the cold-weather fun.

The temperature dipped into the 20s Monday afternoon, but a fire was putting off some heat in a nearby burn barrel.

John Taylor, a member of Trumbull 100, which gave $15,000 as startup money for the rink, said less-than ideal weather has hurt attendance during the early part of December, but he thinks positive word of mouth is beginning to get out.

“Once people come down and see how nice it is and how inexpensive it is to skate, they’ll come back and tell their friends,” he said. “Where else can you skate all day for $5?” he said.

Taylor said he is pleasantly surprised at how many Mahoning County residents and out-of-town guests have come to the rink.

“We’re getting people from all over,” he said.

Weekend attendance has been pretty good since the rink opened, Taylor said. “Now that the schools are out, we anticipate the weekdays will be good,” he said.

The price is the same whether someone rents or uses his own skates. A discount of $1 per skater is available for groups of 10 or more.

Rink hours for New Year’s Eve are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and New Year’s Day, noon to 9 p.m. Skaters 12 and under must be supervised by a parent or guardian.

runyan@vindy.com