Skating rink to open Friday in downtown Santa Rosa square for holiday season

It’s not ice ice baby. But it is polymer polymer, baby!

On Wednesday, workers laid down sheets of white, sleek, synthetic ice at downtown Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square, assembling a new seasonal skating rink set to open to the public Friday.

The attraction is a project of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber, which hopes the rink will provide the city with a hub of holiday joy and an opportunity to unite people around the downtown plaza, which for decades was sliced in half by Mendocino Avenue, said Peter Rumble, the chamber CEO.

The rink, the first of its kind for downtown Santa Rosa, is another step in the effort to use the square as “a real community civic space to bring people together,” Rumble said. “And people being here will obviously support our local restaurants and our small business retailers.”

In April 2017, the city debuted its newly reunified Old Courthouse Square, the result of an ambitious $10.5 million downtown makeover that itself was decades in the making — and a point of much public debate.

It was envisioned as a hub for civic activity, a catalyst for commerce and a new source of urban identity and cohesion. And it has been put to work for those purposes, hosting big sporting events, outdoor markets, charity events and large public demonstrations.

”This is exactly what the previous council, when they unified the square, was looking for,“ said Mayor Chris Rogers. ”An opportunity to create space for community to exist.”

The rink will be open most weekdays and weekends during the afternoon and early evening until Jan. 9. Tickets cost $8.50. They cover a 45-minute session and skate rental. The tickets can be purchased online, connecting skaters to a reservation for an allotted time slot that varies depending on the day.

All proceeds for each day will go to a local nonprofit, which will run the rink for that day, Rumble said. The nonprofits include Sonoma County Pride (which may hold a ‘drag on ice’ event), the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa and several others.

The idea for a skating rink came from the community, Rumble said. Residents wanted an activity to to gather around, similar to other cities like San Francisco’s Holiday Ice Rink In Union Square.

And why not real ice?

Metro Chamber members felt it wasn’t the right thing to do amid California’s severe drought, Rumble said. A genuine ice rink would have required about 55,000 gallons of water and around-the-clock power, he said.

“We wanted to make sure we were representing the community’s values with (regard to) conservation and environmental (issues),” he said. “So we thought this product, Glice, which is a synthetic product, would be the much better option.”

No water or power is needed to run the 35-feet wide and 65-feet long rink and the sheets of polymer material are supposed to resemble the feel, look and function of an ice rink.

The chamber also will host events throughout the holiday season as part of its Winter Lights program, including the annual tree lighting on Nov. 26, the night after Thanksgiving. The event will feature festive music, holiday activities, hot cocoa and apple cider, a candlelit ceremony and photos with Santa.

Sponsors helped pay for the rink, which costs $100,000 to construct and run. The sponsors include T-Mobile, Redwood Credit Union, Poppy Bank, Kaiser Permanente and Graton Resort and Casino, Rumble said.

“I’m very excited,” he said. “I’m excited to give the community something to do after the pandemic, to be outside and be in a place that’s safe and have fun and joy.“

“I can't guarantee that I’ll be any good at skating,” said Mayor Rogers. “But I can guarantee that we’re going to have quite a bit of fun.”

You can reach Staff Writer Alana Minkler at 707-526-8511 or alana.minkler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @alana_minkler.