The first skating season at the City Hall Square ice rink in downtown Windsor has come to an abrupt end.
As AM800 reported Monday, the city was expected to attempt to push the cooling system to its limits despite warmer temperatures in the forecast.
Administration instead announcing later in the day that the rink was effectively closed for the season.
Ward 3 coun. Renaldo Agostino said unfortunately mother nature threw some punches they couldn't handle.
"The warm weather is one thing, but, the sunshine is absolutely detrimental," he said.
"Even though we know there's colder days ahead, that's not how it works. You have to build up the layers of the ice over a certain period of time, and our numbers show us that it's a fight not worth fighting, but, I'll tell you we should have tried."
Fencing will be installed around the rink while crews remove the ice surface and winter decor.
Agostino said city staff will begin dismantling the seasonal setup in the coming days.
"I was speaking to the mayor earlier on about this and he informed me that work has already been completed dealing with the tanks underneath and the reservoir that holds the water, so that's all set to go," he said.
"Hopefully, within a couple of weeks, the water feature will be back, and the outstanding events that we really started last year will be back, and hopefully even more."
He said some changes are expected to be made prior to the next skating season, including the city taking over the skate lending program from All Saints Church and expanding rental hours.
"We're going to be running skate lending hopefully three, four days a week next year, whereas this year it's been just Saturday mornings," said Agostino.
"For the longest time it's only been Saturday mornings so we're going to be making that change for next year where it's going to be easier for families to go down there and get a pair of skates and go skating without having to come and pick them up on a Saturday."
Agostino hoped skating would return in Nov. 2026.