Thanks to Tim Bonham and others to bring a little reason to the discussion of the dangers of sub zero weather to close the warming houses.
The really interesting question is making the closing of warming houses in sub zero weather a cause for a political campaign.
Can you see a piece of literature this summer calling for warming houses despite the temperature despite the wind chill warnings. The candidate could call themselves a "real Minnesotan."
Despite Scallon's baffle gab above -- it's hard to be sure just what he's saying -- the Park Board has some serious "left-hand doesn't know what the right-hand is doing" problems, or some serious hypocrisy going on. From the Pioneer Press:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/sports/high_school/10668491.htm
"Posted on Tue, Jan. 18, 2005
Hockey, in its purest form
High school girls play a game outdoors for the first time, and zero-degree weather wasn't going to stop them.
BY RICK SHEFCHIK
Pioneer Press
It was cold enough to shut down the public warming house at Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis on Monday.
It was not cold enough to keep the first outdoor girls high school hockey game from being played there.
Despite a game-time temperature of 0 degrees, St. Paul United skated to a 4-0 victory over Tri-City in front of 150 hardy fans, numerous members of the media and at least four dogs." ...
"I didn't have one kid complaining about being cold," Tri-City coach Tom Maeckelbergh said. "I hope I get on that bus and they ask if they can do this again next year."
"It was all I could hope for," said United coach Ted Cheesebrough, who conceived of the game as a way to teach his players about the origins of the game. "The day was beautiful and the girls played great."
>>>> "Both coaches praised the Minneapolis Park Board for its efforts in making the game happen. A power line was run from a light pole to the bench area so United's usual game announcer, Doug Carnival, could use a microphone. The Park Board also put a new coat of white paint on the boards before the game, flooded the rink Monday morning and provided a motorized sweeper to clear the ice shavings off the rink between the first and second periods." ...
"The entire scene — hockey played on a frozen lake with the stately homes of the Kenwood neighborhood in the background, and people free-skating next to the hockey rink despite the closed warming house — reminded many of their Minnesota youths.""
<END QUOTES FROM PIONEER PRESS>
So, while on the one hand the Park Board closes the warming house at Lake of the Isles using the argument that it was too cold at zero degrees for anybody to be out skating safely, on the other hand, the Park Board went to extra effort and spent extra money to provide power and improved ice maintenance for a girls hockey game at Lake of the Isles.
So, was it too cold, or wasn't it? What's the real story? You decide.
Chris Johnson Fulton
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