The Bloomington Ice Garden Modernization Project is a part of the Bloomington Forward Sales Tax projects that voters voted yes for on November 7th. We are here celebrating the design development phase of the renovation project, and so we have invited stakeholders and the general public to come celebrate the design where we currently are at, and to get some feedback on what they think of the phase that we're in.

High level, a lot of major mechanical. Three new ice floors, a brand new ammonia ice plant, all new roof and mechanical units. Rink three will shrink from an Olympic to an NHL size rink. We'll be adding high school locker rooms, bleacher stadium on rink three, and that's gonna become the high school rink.

And probably most importantly, actually adding some of the ADA accessibility in the building. Up until this point, besides a couple of ramps in the whole facility, it's been very limited. So adding two elevators and some better viewing and appropriate seating for people of all abilities and mobilities is gonna be spectacular for the future of this facility.

We've got a groundbreaking in September, the addition on the backside of the building, so that's where our new ice plant will go later this fall. We'll hopefully get the second bid pack or the final bid pack out for the rest of the project, and hopefully construction will start inside without interrupting anything in January. And then in mid March, we're gonna shut down the facility for about six months. Complete closure, all three sheets, and that's when we'll hammer out a majority of the work, with the plan of being open no later than October 1st is the goal.

It's a center of community. It's a rallying place for so many people in our community.