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Monday, September 13, 1999
The ice men cometh to Memorial Coliseum today
Skating rink construction begins in preparation for IceRays' second season of minor league hockey
By Mark Button
Caller-Times
A cold front is headed this way. Ice is returning to Memorial Coliseum.
Today, the Corpus Christi IceRays begin the installation of the dasher boards and ice surface between and on which the minor-league hockey team plays.
"They're getting started at 8 a.m. (Monday)," IceRays coach Taylor Hall said last week. "It won't be long before we're skating again."
Headed by IceRays' arena manager Mike Ullrich, the project begins with the anchoring of an oval-shaped steel rail into the coliseum floor, into which the dasher boards will be placed. A one-inch layer of blue foam insulation is then laid down over the entire playing surface, then plastic sheeting - 100 feet long by 20 feet wide - to protect the coliseum floor.
Once that's covered in plastic, Ullrich and his crew lay down a plastic-tube coiling that eventually freezes the water - but not before Ullrich circulates glycol, chilled to 10 degrees, through the tubing to serve as a primer.
A light mist of water is then sprayed over the coils, "just enough to connect all the spaces between the coils with water," Ullrich said. "All of that takes about four days."
The entire project should be complete in 10 days, Ullrich said.
It is not without its costs.
"It takes about $50,000 to get the coliseum ready for hockey each year," said Bill Davidson, the IceRays' general manager and part owner.
By Thursday, the coliseum floor should have a 3/4- to 1-inch thick frozen ice surface. That's when Ullrich and his crew will paint the ice. First a coat of white, then the red and blue lines, the goalies' creases and logos.
Then the fun begins.
"We flood it," Ullrich said. "We flood the whole rink with more water."
Once complete, the Igloo's playing surface will have an ice thickness of 21/2 to 3 inches. "Memorial Coliseum takes on a whole new atmosphere when the ice is in," Hall said. "There's a lot of hard work that goes into it. Some time, it would be nice if we could leave the ice in year around."
, Staff writer Mark Button can be reached at 886-3613 or by e-mail at buttonm@caller.com.
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