During open skate hours at the Hazel Park Ice Arena March 8, novice skaters use walker-like devices to assist them on the ice. The devices are commonly used by those acclimating to the ice.
By: Andy Kozlowski | Madison-Park News | Published March 17, 2025
HAZEL PARK — A new community manager at the Hazel Park Ice Arena recently brought back public skating, a tradition that was on hiatus since the pandemic.
Open skate hours resumed Feb. 22, and have been recurring indefinitely from 3 to 4:50 p.m. each Saturday. Registration is available online at hazelparkicearena.com.
All participants must fill out a waiver. The cost is $10 per person. If needed, a pair of skates can be rented for an additional $3. Payments are made online.
“A lot of people play hockey, their kids play hockey, and a lot of our residents like to go skating in general,” said Mike Webb, mayor of Hazel Park. “So, here’s an opportunity to skate. We all like it — we go once in a while.”
Tim Toggweiler joined the ice arena, located at 1555 E. Woodward Heights Blvd., as the new community manager near the end of last year.
“When the pandemic hit, all public events were shut down,” Toggweiler said in an email. “I took over in December and saw the need to get our community into the building.”
That’s not the only thing that’s changed at Hazel Park Ice Arena since the pandemic.
In 2023, the city of Hazel Park sold the rink, formerly known as Viking Ice Arena, to Black Bear, a company that owns or operates nearly 50 ice arenas across the country.
In Michigan, along with the Hazel Park site, Black Bear manages facilities in Mount Clemens, Brighton, Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
“Black Bear has plans to expand the number of ice arenas that they own in Michigan in 2025,” Toggweiler said. “In their mission statement, they talk about the importance of keeping community ice arenas open so that the community can still utilize the facilities and enjoy ice skating, figure skating and hockey programs.”
While Black Bear’s first offer was rejected, the city sold them the facility for $2.9 million in a deal approved by both the Hazel Park City Council and the General Building Authority — a separate entity created by the city to hold property and finance acquisitions and improvements.
In June 2023, Ed Klobucher, the city manager of Hazel Park, said that about $700,000 of the proceeds were used to pay off the final bond payment, while the rest would be allocated to the city’s capital improvement fund.
Prior to the sale, the ice arena had been a financial burden for the city. Hazel Park first opened the rink in 1999, and its operations proved costly — more than $500,000 a year, plus millions more in deferred maintenance for repairs.
“We inherited it from a different council that approved it in the ‘90s. It was a burden that the current council had to take on,” Webb said. “We had to navigate all the money that it was sucking out of us for years. They overbuilt it — it shouldn’t have been built that big, and the taxpayers’ money shouldn’t have been spent on it.”
The mayor said that the city gave the sale a great deal of thought.
“We were apprehensive about Black Bear at first, until we started calculating the numbers of how much it’d cost us in the future to update the facility,” he said. “We kept maintaining everything, but ice is expensive to provide — the upkeep and maintenance of it. We would’ve had to reinvest a few million dollars more in the future. We figured if we could sell, we’d cover the money and hopefully get the benefit of recouping taxes on the property.”
In addition to the open skate hours, Hazel Park Ice Arena also offers drop-in hockey for ages 18 and older from 11:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The ice arena has also resumed birthday party packages during public skating, which include the use of a locker room for the party and access to skate rental and skating, as well as catering by Chop Detroit, a provider of pizza, sandwiches, salads and refreshments.
The ice arena is also looking to add programs such as “Learn to Skate,” “Sticks and Pucks,” and “Get in the Game,” a training course for adults looking to learn hockey.
“There is only one rule: respect others on the ice,” Toggweiler said. “We have walk-behind skating assist devices — think of a walker, but on ice — for anyone who needs support while skating. Many first-time skaters start off with one of these devices, and are quickly off on their own once they feel comfortable.
“I have skated and played ice hockey since I was a child. It has always brought me great joy to be on the ice. Public skating is a great way for anyone, especially kids, to enjoy a new activity,” Toggweiler said. “We encourage families to come out, teenagers with friends, grandma and grandpa with their grandkids for the day, or anyone looking for an inexpensive way to have fun for a couple hours on a Saturday.”
Klobucher said he is pleased to see the arrangement working out with Black Bear.
“We hope they’re very successful,” Klobucher said. “They’re professional ice arena managers with multiple arenas, and I think an arena that size is best in the hands of a private corporation that has extensive experience running them. It’s a big relief for the city financially.”