Brrr, it's cold. It's also skating season at Brookfield parks

The temperatures have dropped and that means Brookfield's skating ponds are OPEN! I noticed the park department swept off a spot on Kinsey Park's pond and posted the sign for skating. For my neighborhood, this is a relatively new amenity.

When I was a child, Kinsey Park pond was a popular skating spot during the winter months. Our park system even provided gas heat in the warming house! (Warming house/picnic shelter is pictured at left. Open doorways were closed off during the winter months.) Those were the good ole days.

I don't recall the shelter being closed off since we moved here in the late 1980s, but they did still allow skating. At least until the fateful day when the snow sweeper machine fell through the ice!

Many of us in the neighborhood felt the weather had been a little too warm to be driving on the ice at that time, but alas, because of the accident, the pond was deemed unsafe for skating from then on.

But last February I noticed a parks department worker sweeping off the pond again and a new sign: Skating Pond OPEN. So I asked what changed their minds? He said they did some studies* and found the pond's ice was stable enough to support skating again. Great.

So this weekend, maybe you and your kids might want to grab the skates and hit the ice? Have fun.

*The City of Brookfield has done several storm water projects in our neighborhood and with Kinsey Pond. In years past, it was thought there was too much drainage water flowing into and out of the pond, under the ice. This is why they thought the ice was unstable. I believe there were some changes made since the sewer projects, and so that is no longer the case. Last winter was the first time I noticed the pond was OPEN for skating in a l-o-n-g time.


Links: Practically Speaking, Betterbrookfield, RandyMelchert, Jay Weber, Vicki McKenna, The Right View Wisconsin, CNS News, Mark Levin, Breitbart BigGovernment, The Heritage Foundation