Mat-Su Assembly weighs $2.5 million grant to refrigerate the ice at Big Lake rink

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly will hold a public hearing Tuesday, Oct. 20, on accepting $2.5 million from the Mat-Su Health Foundation to refrigerate the ice at the Big Lake Lions Recreation Center. The grant would pay for a refrigerated ice sheet, new dasher boards and new plexiglass.

The borough bought the center in 2025 and reopened it Sept. 12 that year. The rink now depends on cold weather. Borough staff wrote in an information memorandum that the natural-freeze system often delays the ice each season and leaves its quality inconsistent.

According to the memo, the borough would put up no local matching money. The grant period runs from July 1 to Dec. 1, with a final report due to the foundation 30 days later.

The Assembly introduced the measure, along with a companion resolution approving the scope of work and budget, on Oct. 6. At that meeting, Lane Styers, the Houston High School hockey coach, told members that weather had forced the team to schedule most of its games at other rinks. The closest rink is in Wasilla, he said. Other groups avoid booking Big Lake ice, he said, because a week of 45-degree weather can take it away. With refrigeration and better dashers, he said, other organizations would schedule ice time there. No other speaker addressed the item.

"Having ice year-round is just going to be phenomenal for Big Lake, Houston, Willow, further north, Meadow Lakes," Assembly member Bill Gamble, who represents District 5, said at the Oct. 6 meeting.

The hearing is part of the Assembly's 6 pm meeting in the Assembly Chambers in Palmer. Testimony is limited to three minutes per person, and residents can also submit written comments or testify by phone. The measure appears on the Oct. 20 agenda.