SIOUX CITY | More than a dozen people (almost all children) glided around at the ice rink at Sioux City's Cone Park Saturday afternoon, the rink's first day in operation.
John Byrnes, a recreational specialist at Cone Park, was one of the few adults on the ice at that time, pushing a shovel to clear away loose ice that was scraped up by skates. He said that visitors were having a good time on the 5,400-square-foot rink.
Use of the rink is included in the $7-to-$10, four-hour-long admission fee at Cone Park, which includes a large tubing hill.
"The skating is included in your admission. So once you pay to use the hill for tubing, that also includes, for the duration of the four-hour time slot, ice skating," he said. "So people are figuring that out, and more people are coming over and trying skating."
There is also a skating-only option, which costs $5. Renting a pair of skates is an additional $3.
Though most Cone Park users are (not surprisingly) children, Byrnes said everyone is welcome to have fun.
"The great thing about our park is, it's one of those few things that all ages can do," he said. "So we have a lot of parents with kids, we have parents out on the hill, we have parents that'll come over here and use this. But predominantly kids."
Byrnes said the rink, which is artificially refrigerated, can be operated in temperatures as warm as 60 degrees. This was a good feature for Saturday, as afternoon temperatures climbed to well above freezing.
"It gives us the ability to open early (in the season) and stay open later, with the refrigeration system," he said.
Melanie O'Tool, of Hornick, Iowa, was another of the few ice-skating adults at the rink on Saturday. She was shepherding a large group of children brought to the rink for a birthday party.
"We're having fun, the kids love it," O'Tool said. "The kids wanted to come here."
Though O'Tool said she hasn't been skating recently -- "not for a long time" -- she said the family will be return customers.
"We'll be back, for sure," she said.
