Committee recommends $940,000 short-term fix for Wausau ice arena, forwards funding plan to County Board

The Human Resources, Finance and Property Committee voted 5–2 to forward a funding recommendation to the Marathon County Board to pay for short-term repairs and equipment at the Marathon Park ice arena that staff said will preserve both sheets of ice while long-term options are evaluated.

Parks purchasing and operations staff described structural and refrigeration problems at the two-sheet facility: one rink dates to roughly 50 years and the other about 40 years, with evidence of corroded piping, brine loss and a cooling tower nearing failure. Parks staff and an outside refrigeration engineer recommended a short-term strategy to keep both rinks operable while giving the county time to plan a longer-term solution. The centerpiece of the short-term approach is a portable MAT (mat) ice system that is designed to be laid over the existing concrete slab and connected to the current…