By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WINONA LAKE — After a summer of special meetings aimed at revamping the way Winona Lake oversees the Miller Sunset Pavilion, the town has a plan.
Council received an update Tuesday and signed off on some of the details.
Among the changes:
The town has hired a company to oversee ice operations, has lined up two new sources of advertising revenue and approved a budget that officials hope will ensure the facility will become self-sufficient.
Town Council member Ashley McGinnis highlighted the changes at Tuesday’s council meeting and recapped a recommendation from the pavilion committee to establish a $240,000 budget to cover year-round costs for the facility.
Council approved the budget.
“From the numbers that we ran, we can be self-funded as long as we hit our goals and that’s what Orange Marketing Group is gonna help us with,” McGinnis said.
On top of that, the town has secured a five-year contract with Lake City Bank to provide a $25,000 sponsorship for the Zamboni ice machine and hired a company to line up advertising along the walls of the rink — commonly known as dasher boards.
Anyone seeking to advertise is encouraged to call the town hall.
The same committee that put together those plans will now turn its attention to making the facility as viable as possible.
“Now that we’re kind of set up on the operational side of things, we really are going to start focusing on how to attract more people to the ice rink and the facility — it is available for private rental, too,” McGinnis said.
The ice rink will also open earlier than in the past seasons with skating set to begin on Nov. 9.
Council also approved plans to hire a supervisor who will oversee four to six attendants working at the rink during skating season.
Changes involving the rink came after the town abandoned the idea of trying to run the facility with the help of two people, one of which was town council president Jim Lancaster, who operated under a separate entity.
