{"id":800005,"date":"2019-10-02T16:18:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T22:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=372411"},"modified":"2019-10-02T16:18:11","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T22:18:11","slug":"dillon-ice-castles-will-return-this-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/dillon-ice-castles-will-return-this-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Dillon Ice Castles will return this winter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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People explore the Ice Castles on the opening night Friday, Dec. 21, in Dillon.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DILLON \u2014 The Ice Castles are returning to Town Park. <\/p>\n

The Dillon Town Council unanimously voted to approve a resolution at their regular meeting Tuesday night, authorizing the town to enter into a new contract with Ice Castles LLC that would keep the castles in town for the 2019-2020 winter.<\/p>\n

The decision comes following criticism from the town\u2019s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (PRAC) which has voiced concerns over the last two years about the state of the park after the castles came down<\/a> \u2014 noting both damage to the park\u2019s lawn and the amount of time the park is unavailable to the general public into the spring months.<\/p>\n

In June, PRAC members again noted that the continuation of the Ice Castles at the Town Park might be somewhat counterintuitive to future plans for the park. Earlier this year, the town completed a $1.2 million improvement on infrastructure surrounding the park \u2014 primarily in regards to parking and roadway upgrades on Buffalo and La Bonte streets \u2014 along with replacing two of the park\u2019s tennis courts.<\/p>\n

But improvements are set to continue next spring. The town currently has more than $1 million budgeted for a new multi-use field and playground at the park. And with plans to tear up the lawn ahead of next summer, the town and Ice Castles have another chance to prove the castles can come and go without any major damage.<\/p>\n

The contract outlines protections for the town to prevent damage, including a requirement the company \u201crestore the premises to the condition that existed prior to the user\u2019s use as soon as reasonably possible,\u201d and a $10,000 damage deposit in case the park isn\u2019t restored. There are also efforts to better regulate how long the castles will be on the land.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey recognize that it\u2019s a desire of ours, and they\u2019ll be implementing new processes to try and speed things up,\u201d said Kerstin Anderson, Dillon\u2019s marketing and communications director. \u201cThey will do the haul off like they have in the past, but they will grind the ice and won\u2019t wait to melt out the lighting materials in order to accelerate that haul off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contract allows Ice Castles to utilize the land from Oct. 15 to May 30. If the company isn\u2019t expecting to meet the deadline because of weather concerns, they will have to establish a new removal and field restoration timeline with the town by May 15.<\/p>\n

Town staff will likely closely monitor the timelines, especially as representatives with Ice Castles and the town begin discussions for a potential multi-year deal between the entities. Of note, Dan Beck, a representative with Ice Castles, said that the company would be willing to partner on cost-sharing initiatives for things like better drainage infrastructure if a multi-year deal eventually gets put in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve committed to more resources,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cAnd they understand that if they can\u2019t get out of there earlier it\u2019s probably a non-starter in terms of any future relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Otherwise, the contract resembles the previous one from last year, requiring Ice Castles to pay for their own water needs, and outlining proper use of the venue including things like snowplowing responsibilities, signage and food sales.<\/p>\n

Amid concerns about the Ice Castle\u2019s impact on the park\u2019s condition there is also the consideration of the economic impact to the area. Dillon city officials estimate the city garnered about $2 million in media exposure to the town through the last iteration, along with steady sales tax revenues that have maintained a positive impact to the core area since 2017.<\/p>\n

Businesses in the area have also expressed that the Ice Castles help to drive patronage during the winter months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of tourists that come in to see the castles,\u201d said Manuel Gomez, owner of Tacos Tequila Restaurant near the Town Park, who said he\u2019s excited to see the castles return. \u201cI\u2019ve noticed we\u2019ve gotten a lot of business when the Ice Castles are here, there\u2019s a lot of people coming to my restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy about it,\u201d added Jeremy Szeszulski, who took over ownership of Cameez Ice Cream in July. \u201cCameez is all for it. From what I know Ice Castle season is our best season, and is for everyone in this building. It draws a lot of business here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other business owners said that with construction in the area \u2014 notably the incoming Uptown 240 and Hilton Homewood Suites developments \u2014 pedestrian traffic has been lacking of late, and the castles help to push people into the town core.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey brought so many people in, especially to the town core where there\u2019s all the construction going on and we recently lost Adriano\u2019s (Bistro),\u201d said Cindy Trimble, owner of Caf\u00e9 ProFusion. \u201cThere have been fewer people coming to the town core. But the Ice Castles really bring people in. They want to get there ahead of time, and they walk around to check out the area. It\u2019s really helped things out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representatives with Ice Castles are expected to being preparing for the build as early as next week.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People explore the Ice Castles on the opening night Friday, Dec. 21, in Dillon.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com DILLON \u2014 The Ice Castles are returning to Town Park.  The Dillon Town Council unanimously voted to approve a resolution at their regular meeting Tuesday night, authorizing the town to enter into a new contract with Ice Castles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 19:56:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}