The Dickinson Hockey Club is out on the ice one week earlier this year.
"The first day it was up, they were out there at 6 a.m.," Dickinson Parks and Recreation Facilities Operations Manager Bob Faulhaber said.
The Dickinson Area Chamber of Commerce cancelled its annual Ag Show this year, allowing the hockey club to have ice in the Dickinson Recreation Center for 22 weeks starting on Monday.
"One thing I want to point out is that two years back, it used to take two weeks to get the ice in," Parks and Rec Director James Kramer said. "Now, they have it down to about seven days. They've done a great job of getting that facility ready."
The Dickinson Park Board approved three user agreements between the park district and the Dickinson Hockey Club at its regular meeting Tuesday morning. The agreements included arrangements for an outdoor hockey rink, the indoor rink at the Dickinson Recreation Center and the concessions lease agreement.
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In an unrelated matter, spraying for weeds and winterization of irrigation systems is under way at the Heart River Municipal Golf Course in preparation for the coming winter.
"They're going in and they're filling in the low spots, seeding to get some grass down before winter hits," Kramer said. "The spraying project, weed spraying, we've had no luck getting the city out there, so we're going to start doing it on our own. We've got two people who will spray the entire course."
Meanwhile, three new hires to the park district were introduced at the meeting. Park maintenance specialist Jon Schardin, facility supervisor Eric Kittelson and aquatics recreation specialist Laura Shypkoski started in their new positions during the past few weeks.
"All three of them have great backgrounds in parks and recreation," Kramer said. "We're very excited to have them on board."
The park district continues to struggle to find part-time help, particularly with lifeguards, Recreation/Facilities Manager Kevin Klipfel reported.
"We're OK right now," he said. "We've probably got as few lifeguards as we could have to get by. We could use, probably, a half dozen more."
The district is looking into providing some assistance to job candidates with the certification required to work as a lifeguard.
