Packing the kids and gear into the back of the van and setting out for the central Kenai Peninsula or Anchorage in search of ice has been a weekly ritual during the past several seasons, say the parents of young Homer hockey players weary of having to travel just to practice, much less to play.
Successive warm winters have played havoc with the ice in Homer's only rink, an aging, uncovered outdoor facility behind Homer Middle School where players and volunteers often shoveled snow to clear the ice or stared in dismay when the ice became a slushy pond.
Those days will soon be over.
An enthusiastic crowd of 30 to 40 players, parents and members of the Homer Hockey Association, representatives of the city of Homer, Kachemak City and the Kenai Peninsula Borough, as well as delegates of the Arctic Winter Games 2006 Host Society were on hand Wednesday evening in Homer for a groundbreaking ceremony, launching the long-anticipated construction of a covered community hockey rink.
The groundbreaking was the culmination of years of effort by volunteers and municipal officials who worked together to make the project happen, including the first real money aimed at a future hockey rink, $100,000 in state matching funds the city of Homer made available to the project in the late 1990s.
Harry Rasmussen, president of the hockey association, said the association "got real serious" in its effort to secure funding for a new rink about four years ago. Many unanswered questions faced the organization, such as whether to have refrigerated ice or whether the association wanted to actually own a rink.
"There was a lot of inertia in the past," he said. "But with 35 to 50 games on the road (a season), the urgency to get something done became greater."
Watching warm weather melt the only available ice only contributed to the growing motivation to build, he said.
"We had no ice," he said.
Negotiations with the city of Homer followed through two city managers, Ron Drathman and more recently, Walt Wrede.
"It took about a year to get on the same page with the city," Rasmussen said. "We hashed out the basic parameters both organizations were comfortable with."
Homer Electric Association's willingness to lease some of its land along Lake Street in downtown Homer to the association helped solidify the project.
"On behalf of HEA, I want to say we're happy this program has come together," HEA spokesperson Joe Gallagher told the groundbreaking crowd.
The association and the city of Homer have signed a memorandum of understanding under which the city will eventually purchase the land from HEA.
The new facility is estimated to cost around $1.5 million. The association already has received some $1.2 million in donations and grants. Rasmussen thanked Homer's Special Projects Coordinator Anne Marie Holen, whose work led to securing about $700,000 of that funding. Kachemak City, Homer's neighbor to the east, donated $30,000.
The project also has received a $500,000 no-strings grant from the Rasmuson Foundation (no relation to Rasmussen). Applying for that grant was helpful in more ways than one, Rasmussen said. The foundation's questions exposed some of the project's weaknesses.
"It was brutal," Rasmussen said.
Once the weaknesses were addressed, however, the foundation came through, not only with much-needed funding but also with praise for the organization and its supporters, he said.
Also helping in encouraging donations and participation by funding agencies was the connection to the 2006 Arctic Winter Games. The rink will host the curling competition.
The rink facility will be available to the city during five months of the year for other functions, such as trade shows, Rasmussen said. The rest of the year, it will serve a rapidly growing population of young hockey players. According to Rasmussen, there are slightly more than 100 active players. He expects that number to approach 200 within two years of the rink's completion sometime this fall, he said.
Not only will the advent of a new rink in Homer allow hockey parents a bit more freedom on their weekends, it will allow Homer to host future hockey competitions, drawing participants and parents to the city and contributing to the local economy during the slow winter months, Rasmussen said. For now, Homer Hockey Association is staying hard at work trying to raise an additional $300,000, but Rasmussen isn't worried. Construction will start shortly. It's been tough skating, but the project looks like a breakaway and the goal is in sight.
"When you have 80 to 85 percent of a project prepaid, you've got to feel good about where you are going," Rasmussen said.
