New era of outdoor ice takes shape

For decades, Cloquet kids played hockey outside in the elements, until volunteers and local businesses came together to build the Pine Valley Ice Arena aka the Barn, in the late 1960s and gave the city its first indoor rink.

Now a growing group of volunteers and donors is bringing a quality outdoor rink to the Barn grounds, to give kids more space to play and practice the sport they love. Members of the Cloquet Area Hockey Association - many of them parent volunteers - tore down the old boards and have been working to create a bigger and better outdoor rink on the east end of the Pine Valley Arena.

"The old rink has continued to be used through last season just for a place for kids to skate," said association vice president Jason Eckenberg. "No planned practices have been out on that rink for a few years. It's basically been used as a shinny rink."

Eckenberg said the boards had deteriorated so much that practices would have been dangerous.

"The old boards had holes in them and they were just rotting away," he said. "The Zamboni was rarely used on it due to it not being wide enough."

The board has been discussing replacing the rink over the past few years and a twist of fate this summer set the new renovation in motion.

"This summer I was at the Buffalo House and they were just starting to take down their hockey rink boards due to lack of use," Eckenberg said. "I spoke with the owner, Scott Stoyanoff, and he said if we took them down he would donate them to the association."

Eckenberg then went to the board and asked for permission to get the new boards to start a potential rebuild. The hockey group then formed a small committee consisting of Eckenberg, Judd Parks, Jesse Wick and Jeff Leno to work on getting the replacement boards.

"I presented that to the board and also the thought of having an outdoor rink so that we could have Mite games and practices for the older kids if needed," Eckenberg said. "Our indoor rinks fill up fast with practices and games from Mites to high school and the Minnesota Wilderness."

About 15 volunteer parents showed up to help get the boards down at Buffalo House. A few days later a group of five volunteers, using equipment from Snowmen Inc. donated by Andrew Juttila, removed the boards from the Cloquet rink.

Next Jason Johnson (whose kids played in Esko and now in Cloquet) took a couple of boards from the Buffalo House home to figure out the best way to take them apart.

"The only things we are saving are the metal frames and the plastic on them will be replaced," Eckenberg said. "Jason then came back with an idea of the easiest way to disassemble the boards which then led us to have 10 more parent volunteers and a couple of high school kids who need volunteer hours for National Honor Society disassembling the Buffalo House boards."

Snowmen provided more equipment to load up all the boards and parts the group wasn't using and brought them to the Shamrock industrial landfill. The general manager of Shamrock, Kyle Backstrom, the Esko Hockey Association president, donated the disposal fee.

Juttila and his crew prepared the site for the new rink and next the city put down gravel.

"We got a donation from Shawn Frye with Asphalt of Duluth for a fabric mat to go under the (gravel) to hold it all together," Eckenberg said. "Adam Kiminski, with Kiminski Paving, hauled in (most of) the fill and leveled off the area to put the new rink - which will be wider and longer than the previous rink."

Arrowhead Water, Snowmen, Kiminski Paving, Northland Construction, Asphalt of Duluth, and many parents of Mites through Bantam A players have donated time or materials.

"Now we are moving into the phase of spending money," Eckenberg said. "We estimated the project will cost between $15,000 and $20,000. New plastic on the boards and hardware, players boxes and expanding or building a new warming house are all part of the project."

In an effort to defray costs, Eckenberg, Leno, Nole Stay and others are running a Mite camp with all proceeds going to the project. Stay has also put in for a grant from Lake Country Power, where he is an employee, which could bring in anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000. Westin Michaud, with Northland Development Hockey Camps, said he will also be making some kind of donation toward the rink, Eckenberg said.

"We are trying to build this with mostly donations and volunteers," he said. "We'd like to involve everyone, get the Cloquet hockey pride back in Cloquet and come together to have a great place for parents and kids to learn and enjoy the game."