Civic center fixes nearing completion
Nov. 18—MANKATO — Hopefully the Minnesota State University Mavericks aren't superstitious about their ice.
The men's team skated to the national championship game last season on ice created by a mobile refrigeration system, parked on a semi-trailer outside the civic center after the arena's equipment failed. The same ice was beneath the blades of the women's team, which had its best winning percentage in more than a decade.
Starting tonight, though, the Mavericks will be bidding farewell to the temporary ice plant and relying on a permanent ammonia-based arena refrigeration system installed at a cost of $1.3 million. Testing of the new ice plant was completed last week, and the system passed state inspections.
"It's eight months in the making," said Parker Skophammer, administrative services director for the city of Mankato. "We're excited to see it at the finish line."
Excited, but also cautious.
"We're going to keep the temporary plant down here for the next two weeks just in case we have any issues," Skophammer said.
The last gasp of the old ice plant at the end of the 2020-21 season involved 900 pounds of Freon escaping from the system. A subsequent test showed nearly three dozen leaks, both in the older parts of the plant dating back to the civic center's 1995 construction and in newer components installed as recently as 2019.
The ammonia-based system means cheaper, more readily available coolant is being used. But it also requires larger machinery, forcing the city to build a small vestibule on the arena's backside to contain the added bulk.
The failing ice plant was just one of the problems being fixed this year at the civic center. New stucco-like exterior wall panels are being installed to replace failing panels — work that will continue until mid-December. Combined with the replacement of the arena roof, which was expected to wrap up this week, the projects totaled roughly $5 million.
With cold weather at hand, the city has also kicked off the replacement of the air-cooling system at the civic center — a $1.6 million project to replace old-style cooling towers with a new chiller. That work is to be completed by late winter or early spring.
Elsewhere, a roof replacement project is in its last stages at the Caledonia Community Center — the municipal curling facility on Hope Street.
And the $6.4 million project to expand and improve the youth softball complex at Thomas Park hit its pre-winter construction goals.
"All grading is complete, utilities are complete, the footings and foundations are set," Skophammer said. "The sod is in place, and the (artificial) turf will begin in the spring."
The six-field complex just east of East High School is expected to be finished by mid-July.
Winter arrived too soon for one project — the replacement of the deteriorating Broad Street parking ramp with a surface lot. The 47-year-old ramp has been razed and cleared, but the surface lot couldn't be completed before the cold weather shut down local asphalt-production plants.
That project will be on hold until the asphalt plants reopen in the spring.
