Ice rink gives added excitement for holidays in downtown district

Mention Christmas, even in February, and the holiday season evokes a myriad of thoughts that hasten a smile.

The yuletide season includes images of sugar plums that dance in the heads of children, abundantly decorated Christmas trees beside a warm fireplace, and laughter and glee from skaters dressed up like Eskimos reveling in Christmas cheer on an ice rink.

Christmas memories are made of this. At least Josh Rogers hopes so. That’s why Rogers, president of Sallisaw Main Street, is doing something in December the city has never experienced.

“We’ve never had an ice skating rink in town before,” he says, almost giddy with excitement. “People are going to be really excited about that.”

Pointing out that Sallisaw Main Street sponsors and coordinates a lot of events each year for Sallisaw’s downtown business district, Rogers says the question arose about what the organization might do in the wintertime to increase activity in the downtown area.

“I had really been pushing for an ice skating rink,” he says. “After doing some research and pricing, we saw that it was going to be feasible. So we pulled the trigger on it, and we’ve got the rink rented, so we’re excited about that. We’ve paid our deposit, so it’s for sure happening.”

Scheduled to be open Thursday through Sunday nights in December, the portable ice rink will be located at Stage Park at the corner of Choctaw Avenue and Oak Street.

But Rogers admits that all other details — hours, price of admission, skate rental, etc. — are still being determined.

“We’re going for it this year, and I’m excited,” he says. “Really, on something like this, it’s the people that make this work. We can do all the work for it, but if people don’t come and support the downtown and support local and shop local, this doesn’t work. So the more people that come and support it — with all of our events — the more events we’ll be able to do.

“We might even be looking at renting the ice rink out to some schools for some trips during the school days.”

But a monthlong venture of this type doesn’t come without a price tag.

“It’s solely a Main Street project, so we’re looking for financial sponsors,” Rogers says. “Of course, Main Street is paying for it, but the more sponsors we get, the more extra activities we can have in the downtown. We’re looking at having events — could even be live music or could be live reindeer, something different on the weekends, maybe even looking at some carriage rides — but the more financial support we get from the community, the more we’ll be able to bring to the downtown.

“We’re also looking for volunteers, because this is solely a non-profit. No one will be making profit besides, of course, Main Street. We will charge [admission], and the money will go back to support the Main Street organization, so we’re looking for people who are interested in volunteering, because Main Street will have to run it those four nights [each week],” he says.

It’s not known what size the rink will be, but Rogers says he expects it to be “one that will skate quite a few people at a time — I think 50 to 60.”

But since there’s no guarantee that December nights in Oklahoma will be cold enough to keep the ice from becoming a swimming pool, how will skaters be assured they’ll have a frozen surface on which to glide and pirouette?

Rogers says the national company from which Sallisaw Main Street rented the rink utilizes synthetic ice, a practice commonly used in the southern part of the U.S. He says it’s the same company that provides the ice rinks in Fort Smith and Van Buren, and synthetic ice is used for those rinks.

“The skaters will not even know, if they’ve never skated on ice. Nobody ever knows the difference if they’ve never skated. It’s slick. It’s easy to maintain in our warm temperatures,” Rogers says.

“Now if somebody was coming down from Minnesota and they jumped on it, they’d go ‘Uh, this is not ice.’ They could still skate on it, they’d just realize the difference pretty quick. But nobody here will know the difference, the national company said.”

The ice rink is just one of the new activities the organization has planned for 2023. Sallisaw Main Street will also be hosting the first-ever Main Street Outdoor Market.

“It’s going to be like a big downtown market, with fresh flowers, we’ve already got food vendors lined up — like the big kettle corn vendors, arts and crafts — we’ve got several food vendors signed up already, but we are still looking for vendors for that,” Rogers says.

The recurring event will be 4 to 8 p.m. on the first Thursday of the month from June through September, and will be located on Oak Street from Cherokee Avenue to Choctaw Avenue, including Stage Park.

“It will consist of live music, vendors of all kinds, street food and food trucks, fresh flowers and more,” Rogers says.

The ice rink for the holidays and the outdoor market in the summer are the two newest additions to the Sallisaw Main Street calendar. The organization will continue to sponsor annual community favorites, such as the barbecue cook-off during Diamond Daze and the chili cook-off in October. Plus, the popular Pink Pig trailer, which offers delicious funnel cakes and Indian tacos, pops up from time to time.

“We’ve got four or five big events we’re planning for the year,” Rogers says. “This is the most we’ve ever done. So volunteers are really needed. That’s what we’re needing now is help. It’s always just been a few of us, and a lot of people didn’t even know they could become involved.”

Those interested in becoming involved with Main Street should call Carol Brown at 918-776-7920.

Sallisaw Main Street meets at noon on the first Monday of the month at the Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce offices.