Ice rink repairs approved
By Kevin O’Brien
Hockey teams and other groups who use the ice rinks in Wausau will be asked to be pay more for maintaining the facility in the coming years and may eventually be expected to pay for a new facility, based on a short-term repair resolution passed by the Marathon County Board on Tuesday.
By a vote of 31-2, supervisors agreed to amend this year’s budget in order to pay for $690,000 in repairs to the two countyowned rinks at Marathon Park, which were briefly unavailable last fall because of leaks in the 50-plus-year-old refrigeration system. The money will be used to purchase a mat system to cover the concrete floor and create ice for the start of next season in November.
The Parks Department had originally asked for $940,000 so it could also replace an aging cooling tower, but after cost concerns were raised by supervisors, the request was scaled back significantly.
Parks Department director Jamie Polley told the Human Resources, Finance and Personnel Committee (HRFC) on Tuesday that the cooling tower is “on borrowed time,” but she and her staff believe they can make any needed repairs within their annual maintenance budget.
The HRFC came up with a revised funding resolution for the repairs, which includes $125,100 in additional user fee revenue over the next four years, with the anticipation that hourly ice fees will be increased. Based on a “stepped” approach chosen by the board, the total fees collected would increase by $18,750 this year, followed by $25,000 in 2026, $31,250 in 2027, and $37,520 in 2028.
Originally, the funding proposal for fixing the rinks did not include any increase in user fees, but that changed after several supervisors said they would like to see the various hockey teams who use the ice have “more skin in the game.”
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Other sources of funding for the repairs include $400,000 in excess timber sale proceeds from the county’s forest system and a $130,000 reallocation of funding from a fence replacement project that was supposed to start this year at Marathon Park. Polley said the project will be postponed a year, and any urgent fence repairs will be done within the maintenance budget.
The funding resolution was amended by the full board to make it clear that the county is going to expect more financial support from the community for the ice arena going forward.
Supervisor Gayle Marshall introduced the amendment to change the resolution from community “financial assistance” to “financed.” She said she believes the ice arena should be converted to a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, similar to operations in cities like Sun Prairie and Green Bay.
“I believe that if we step aside, I’m confident that the hockey community is going to come together and be able to get those donor funds if it’s a 501(c)(3),” she said.
When asked if the wording change would mean the county is “out of the ice business” in the future, corporation counsel Michael Puerner said that would require a separate action by the board. The amended resolution is simply conveying the county board’s intentions, he said. “I would take it as a message to the community that the county is looking for community- led financing in future discussions, but that doesn’t foreclose the county from being involved in future funding,” he said.
Supervisor Stacey Morache said she supported the amended resolution as a way to address the short-term fixes while also giving user groups time to do fundraising for a new facility.
“I’m in favor of the community taking over the ice arena in the future and having them build the complex that they want,” she said.
Multiple supervisors spoke about the ice arena as an important county asset that generates economic activity in the area and provides both youth and adults with a healthy physical activity.
Supervisor Jean Maszk, whose boys started playing hockey at young age, said she believes county residents are supportive of the facility even if they don’t use it, especially since it brings in tax revenue.
“I represented a very rural district for approximately 15 years, and not once did anyone question our two ice rinks that were county-owned or the soccer fields,” she said. “Everyone in the county, whether they’re in Stratford or the town of Franzen, benefits from the sales tax.”
Supervisor Chris Dickinson, who represents Stratford and the surrounding townships on the southwest side of the county, said he believes his constituents would support the funding resolution “as a reasonable action to ensure that all of our county citizens have a place to skate.”
Supervisor Tom Seubert, however, said he got mixed opinions from people who called him and wondered why the rink users weren’t at the meeting to show their support of the facility.
“This place should have been full of peewee hockey players, high school hockey players,” he said. “Aren’t they interested? Don’t they care if we have it or not?”
When asked for a breakdown of how much the rinks are used by various groups, Polley said the county rented out the ice for 2,207 hours in 2024, with 941 of those hours going to youth hockey leagues, 366 hours to high school teams and 292 to the Wausau Cyclones, a North American Tier 3 team.
Polley also provided updated information on how much the county actually subsidizes the ice rinks with tax dollars. Based on the most recent numbers, which were not fully finalized, she said the ice arena recovered 93 percent of its costs through user fees, leaving the county to contribute about $16,000.
The board ultimately approved the funding resolution by an overwhelming majority, with the only no votes coming from supervisor Jordan Reynolds, who represents the far western end of the county, and Deb Hoppa, who said the county should stop paying for short-term fixes and look at building a whole new facility.
“I’m going to have to vote no for the simple reason that the Band-Aid is not going to last very long,” she said.
Supervisor John Robinson, however, used a different analogy for the repairs.
“I don’t think this is a Band-Aid,” he said. “I think it’s an operation.”
