The outdoor ice rinks officially opened to the public on Monday, but Park and Recreation Director Joey Schugel said the ice was ready last week, but with the extremely cold weather over the weekend, they decided to wait until this week to open the rinks.

The early arrival of cold weather enabled the rink to open earlier than usual. Harman Park has two ice rinks, a pleasure skating rink and a hockey rink.

“For sure, this is the earliest we’ve opened the rink in a number of years,” Schugel said. “Recently, it has been hard to open the rink before Christmas time. We are often looking at January to open it, but we got an early snowfall, which got the ground cold and allowed staff to lay down a base.”

To create a skating rink in Harman Park, city staff must flood the area, let the water freeze, and then flood it again. Last year, staff needed to flood the rinks 12 times before the ice was suitable for skating. Schugel said it did not take as long this year and they were able to flood right away in December.

Three-year-old Attie Arndt practices his hockey goalie stance at Harman Park rink Wednesday. Though Attie has watched his cousins play hockey before, this was his first time on the ice. Though he does not have his own skates yet, his mother said she would start teaching him to skate soon.

“The first snowfall packed things down and accelerated the process,” Schugel said. With the temperatures remaining below the freezing point, the rink remained solid. Though temperatures have risen above freezing the last few days, temperatures dropped below freezing at night, keeping the rinks together.

Schugel said the Parks Department was excited to have the outdoor rinks open this early because they like to support outdoor activities all year long and skating is an important winter activity.

Outdoor ice rinks have a long history in New Ulm. Schugel said the city used to have multiple ice rinks spread around the community, but Harman Park is the only outdoor rink the city still maintains. Schugel said due to increasingly mild winters, it is difficult for the Parks Department to maintain more than one outdoor rink.

Harman Park is the ideal place for a rink. The park is centrally located within New Ulm and is one of the oldest skating locations in the city. Schugel said the park has hosted a rink for well over 50 years, back before it was Harman Park and was known as West Side Park. The park has also had several warming houses over the years. The most recent warming house was renovated in the early 2000s.

Schugel said in addition to the skating rinks, Harman Park has one of the more popular sledding hills, making it one of the best New Ulm Parks for outdoor winter activities.

Shilo Arndt shows her 3-year-old son Attie Arndt how to guard the goal at the outdoor Harman Park hockey rink.

Schugel said that though there were indoor skating options, the outdoor rink remains popular.

“There was a big group of kids skating on it Tuesday,” Schugel said.

There was lighter use on Wednesday, but a few younger children were able to practice sliding on the ice.

The Harman Park warming house is open from noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Sunday; however, the park is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The rink lights will remain on for those who wish to skate outside of warming house hours.

The Harman Park warming house officially open to the public this week. The pleasure rink and hockey rink were flooded last week; a month earlier than last year. The Harman Park warming house is open from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Sunday; however, the park is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. The rink lights will remain on for those who wish to skate outside of warming house hours.

Harman Park ice rink is ready for skating before Christmas.