City Council Meeting Date: February 7, 2017
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: David E. Bennett, Public Works Director/City Engineer
Title
Consider Resolution Amending General Fund Budget for Northfield Ice Arena Related to Extended Summer Ice Schedule.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council approves the Resolution amending the General Fund Budget for the Ice Arena to include summer ice (this action is a simple majority).
Summary Report:
As part of the 2017 budget process, summer ice at the City's Ice Arena was removed from the budget to meet the 2% general fund levy. Through the process the Northfield Hockey Association (NHA) was concerned with this action and identified a need for a summer ice program.
When the summer ice program was started in 2013, it was run by the NHA. The last three years a private entity ran the summer ice program to benefit local youth hockey players; however, each year there has been declining revenue from the program and the City isn't seeing a commitment of hours to maintain the program. This led to this being an item eliminated from the 2017 budget.
Staff informed the NHA of the decline and indicated that if they put together a program and committed revenue to offset City expenditures for summer ice it would be brought to Council for consideration.
The NHA has put together a summer program that will be more compact than in the previous years. The program will run essentially from mid-June to August from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. during the week and possibly some evenings. Ice will be removed in early August and not remain in place as in 2016.
Also, the City has had inquiries from the Northfield Skate School and a men's group for open hockey. Staff will be working with those entities further to understand their commitments, but our understanding is that it would be one night per week and staff would schedule them on the same night.
Alternative Options:
The City could elect not to o...
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