The Weather Channel predicted mild weather patterns for Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in Cottage Grove. A high of 20 degrees accompanied by winds flowing at 5-10 miles per hour, was estimated alongside a minuscule chance for precipitation. These conditions marked outdoor activities as an option for residents to spend their vacation day. Furthermore, the recent grand opening of Cottage Grove’s outdoor ice rinks provided an exceptional winter-weather opportunity. The Journal explored Cottage Grove’s outdoor ice rinks and how they allowed many to celebrate MLK Day, in skates.

Each winter, in the initial days of December, The Cottage Grove Parks and Recreation Department sends forth their Park Maintenance team to eight distinct locations. Next, the “dedicated” individuals facilitate a prompt flooding procedure that creates outdoor ice rinks. “…They adjust their shifts each December to be able to flood overnight when temperatures are at their coldest and the sun doesn’t hinder the freezing process,” Parks and Recreation Director, Zac Dockter, informed The Journal.

This season, Park Maintenance began these exact preparations in early December to ensure that the rinks could open on a typical date. However, Mother Nature insisted on leading her own agenda. Dockter revealed, “…the mild temperatures didn’t allow us to really open the ice for skating until December 26. Normally, we are flooding rinks the first week of December and can have them open by Dec 15 so we were a little behind this year because of the mild temperatures.”

Essentially, Cottage Grove’s outdoor ice rinks became available slightly later than anticipated. Contrastingly, the opening of their adjacent buildings delayed extensively for reasons relating to COVID-19. “Warming houses were allowed to be opened January 11 per the Governor’s orders,” Dockter stated.

Warming houses serve as indoor places where guests can tweak their winter gear and use a restroom. Due to the fact that the spread of COVID-19 remains a concern, the City of Cottage Grove posted rules for accessing the facilities. Every warming house displays two signs at their entrances. One reads, “MASKS REQUIRED INSIDE”. The other poster suggests that guests spend no more than five minutes indoors and comply with the written occupation limit. The occupation limit varies across all of the warming houses in Cottage Grove.

Wearing masks and being mindful of crowding inside of Cottage Grove’s warming houses are unfamiliar concepts. That mentioned, they are necessary practices for continuing valuable services. One visitor at Hamlet Park found the city’s efforts to open warming houses amidst an era of restrictions, “nice”. Laura described, “…I think some cities aren’t opening their warming houses because of COVID…everybody that’s skating here is being respectful of the masks sign, they’re wearing masks while they’re inside of the warming house so we feel that that’s a safe thing to do; opening up the warming houses…it’s really nice that Cottage Grove does that with the warming houses.”

The afternoon of Martin Luther King Jr. Day arrived and many were drawn to these outdoor ice rinks of Cottage Grove. At Highlands Park, Mike and his daughters, Liv and Evelyn, were found passionately utilizing the pleasure rink for a couple of reasons. “…I’m off today and the girls have never gone skating over here so we were going to check it out…and look, they got some new skates so wanted to give them a try,” Mike explained.

His girls were absolutely on board with spending their holiday at a local ice rink. “We really like it!” exclaimed Liv.

Considering additional exemplary reviews about Cottage Grove’s outdoor ice rinks, Miss Liv and Miss Evelyn’s phrases of admiration can be deemed as accurate. Brittney had strictly positive things to say about her experience at Hamlet, for instance. “The ice is really good…it is big…we feel really safe,” she remarked.

Brittney and her daughter, Kinsley, visited Hamlet Park’s outdoor ice rink when they had “nothing else to do” on MLK Day. Visiting the area on that day also served as a new opportunity for them, “We actually heard really good things about this rink in particular, so we’ve never been here before…”

Friends, Kyle and Laura, were equally pleased to be ice skating in Cottage Grove on their three-day-weekend. More specifically, they appreciated the various skating sections in Hamlet Park. Laura commended, “Our group has inexperienced skaters, so that’s why we like that pleasure rink, in that it’s not boarded and we have to compete with hockey pucks flying at us…”

“It’s a good blend,” Kyle agreed with her.

Later, The Journal spoke with two good friends that took advantage of their lack of schooling obligations by skating at Highlands Park. Maddie and Grace mainly highlighted that spending a holiday during a dangerous pandemic in this way felt delightful rather than risky. “It’s kind of more safe, you’re not close to people and stuff… it’s just really nice and beautiful outside and it’s close to our home…there’s lots of space,” Grace applauded.

The City of Cottage Grove operates seven outdoor ice rinks that the public may utilize this winter. They are located at Hamlet Park, Hearthside Park, Highlands Park, Peter Thompson Park, Pine Tree Valley Park, Woodridge Park and Armstrong Elementary. Six of the rinks are paired with a warming house, with Armstrong being the single exception. During the weekdays, these warming houses are accessible from 3pm to 8pm. On Saturdays and Sundays they are available for a bit longer; from 11am to 8:30pm. Warming houses committed to these hours on MLK Day and will do so again on President’s Day. According to Cottage Grove’s official website, warming houses will close when “air temperature is -10 degrees or lower, heavy snowfall has not been cleared from the ice, insufficient number of skaters after 8:00pm, warm temperatures have softened the ice, [and/or] wind chill is -35 or lower”. All of this information and more can be tracked down on www.cottagegrovemn.gov/Document-Center/View/983/Hours-of-Opereration-BM?bidId= .