An inspector cited Anchorage's ice rinks for safety valves a decade old

A state pressure vessel inspector has written up the Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson ice arenas over 16 carbon dioxide relief valves that are supposed to be replaced every five years and have not been in about ten. A relief valve is what vents pressure before a tank bursts. The valves sit on the refrigeration system's main receivers and oil reservoirs.

Replacing them costs $38,606. That figure is inside a request for up to $936,157 that Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has sent to the Assembly for introduction Tuesday, with a public hearing Oct. 6. The rest is deferred maintenance: $612,000 for a new dehumidifier at Ben Boeke, $214,600 for a new boiler at Dempsey Anderson, $42,621 to repair dehumidification at Dempsey's two rinks, and $28,330 to replace three condenser fans that have already failed.

The money comes from the arenas' own capital reserve rather than general taxes. That reserve held about $1.3 million in June. Under the deal the Assembly approved that month handing operation of both rinks to a nonprofit arm of the Anchorage Hockey Association, for $10 a year, the arenas' 5 percent revenue contribution to the reserve is suspended through the start of 2029. The Assembly also drew $42,100 from it in June for a failed refrigeration valve and a Zamboni room door.

The refrigeration systems date to the 1980s. State capital records have described them as aging, costly to repair and dependent on obsolete parts since at least 2014.

At a June work session, hockey association president Jeanne Carey told the Assembly her board "cannot meet our mission to provide youth hockey in Anchorage" without the two municipal rinks.