Downtown Carson ice rink to close Sunday night

Anyone wanting to get in one last ice-skating session still has time - but not much.

The Carson City Recreation Ice Rink saw a year-to-date attendance jump this season but will close at 7 p.m. Sunday due to the mild winter pushing participants toward cleats instead of ice skates, officials said Thursday, which saw a high temperature of 61 degrees.

"With our region's unseasonably warm weather, we are finding families enjoying other outdoor recreational activities," said Joel Dunn, recreation operations manager.

Dunn said the original plan was to keep the ice rink open until March, but the decline and the weather made it financially unfeasible. He said the costs of keeping the ice from turning to water rose 35 percent over the last 30 days, to $3,500. Dunn said he was used to paying between $2,500 and $2,700.

All recreation programs are mandated to recoup 100 percent of their costs, and that goal is in sight with the last few weekend bookings, he said. But after that, it would be up in the air.

"With the decrease in attendance due to the weather, it would have been difficult to meet that mandate," Dunn said.

Early on, the weather had actually helped, Dunn said, and almost 9,500 skaters had hit the ice as of Feb. 7, a year-to-date jump of 16.4 percent compared with last season.