In exchange for prime-time hours of ice to rent, the City of Rosemount and the Rosemount Area Hockey Association will pay for nearly $900,000 in improvements to an arena in neighboring Inver Grove Heights.
The Rosemount City Council this week gave Inver Grove Heights the go-ahead to make repairs to the city’s west rink at Veterans Memorial Community Center Ice Arena.
Under a 10-year deal, Rosemount and the hockey association will split the cost of 90 percent of the project, which includes a new rink floor, dasher boards and a new ice resurfacer.
In turn, the hockey association will be guaranteed 550 “peak hours” of ice to rent each year — generally, weeknight evenings and weekend days and nights, November through February. That’s about double what the association currently rents in Inver Grove Heights.
Rosemount’s one arena and the privately-owned “Pond” — a three-on-three rink — do not have enough available hours for the association, which is growing in numbers and would like to add more teams, said Dan Schultz, the city’s parks and recreation director.