Skating—But Not on Ice—in Beverly Hills

Summer may have just started, but the Recreation and Parks Commission is already thinking about winter.

On Tuesday the commission discussed installing an ice skating rink in Beverly Gardens Park. Because of the high costs of maintaining a traditional rink, recreation services manager Brad Meyerowitz suggested a hybrid one that doesn't use actual ice.

"I can't imagine what the cost would be to have to chill it 24/7," he said.

In 2002-2003, the city installed a traditional but temporary ice skating rink in the Civic Center Plaza near City Hall, Meyerowitz said.

"For 30-some days, it cost over $152,000 to run," he said.

The bulk of that expense came from having to move an ice chiller from Texas to Beverly Hills to maintain the rink.

"With hybrid, there is no electricity to be used except lights for the night skating," Meyerowitz said. "If we have our winter heat spell like we did last holiday period—on Jan. 2 it was 85 degrees—maintaining a real ice skating rink in those temperatures is extremely difficult… With a hybrid rink it doesn't matter what the temperature is."

Santa Monica has installed a traditional ice skating rink near the Third Street Promenade for several of the last winters. Meyerowitz plans to confer with city officials there to determine whether the cost of bringing any kind of rink to Beverly Hills—traditional or hybrid—is fiscally feasible.

He will present a detailed proposal during the July 8 City Council meeting. If the city decides to go forward with the rink, initial plans calls for it to be open from Nov. 20-28 and again from Dec. 17 though Jan. 9.

"[The rink] can really bring shoppers, hopefully, to the community," commission chairwoman Jill Collins said. "We can look into sponsorship to cover costs. And we will recoup costs--it's just not upfront."

The commission would like city staff, rather than an outside contractor, to oversee the rink's operations. With the hybrid rink, only staff and overnight security will need to be hired.

"If another company comes in and takes it over totally, for profit, it changes the whole dynamic of the rink in the first place of what we wanted as a community activity," Collins said.