Waitsburg moves forward with skating rink plans
By Griffin Beach on Thursday, September 25th, 2025 in Columbia Basin News Columbia Basin Top Stories
WAITSBURG – The city of Waitsburg has decided to move ahead with plans to convert the former city pool site into a skating rink for the winter months and a skate park for the summer months.
The Waitsburg City Council decided to accept the proposal from Kwik Rink of Minnesota for their synthetic ice setup, the offer presented at the August council meeting was for $57,040. The cost of the entire project including concrete pour and remodeling of the old bath house will be covered by a $102,000 grant from Walla Walla County.
A decision on the conversion to a skating rink was tabled at the August meeting because some of the council members expressed concern about the quality of the synthetic ice. Kwik Rink Operations Executive Brett Mason joined the meeting via Zoom to answer questions and address concerns from the council. Many of the questions were related to maintenance and how the rink would hold up in certain weather conditions. Mason said their product was durable enough to withstand most weather conditions and liked the idea of a covering over the rink that City Manager Randy Hinchcliffe has planned.
Before the vote to approve moving forward with the plan councilwoman Jillian Henze proposed an amendment to make the skating facility, including skate rental, free. Even though Henze stated “free for families” Hinchcliffe clarified that this means the skating rink would be free for everyone. Although he did point out that they will have 75 pairs of skates of various sizes available for rental which could create limitations.
Hinchcliffe also added that after consulting with someone who had been involved with the Walla Walla skate park he was moving towards a permanent skate park setup in the area of the former kiddie pool, instead of putting temporary ramps on the concrete pad which had been originally planned. He said designs were currently being worked on so that he could begin to look into grants.
Photo is an artists conception of the Waitsburg skating rink, courtesy of the city of Waitsburg
