The Linden rink replaces its ice plant after thirty-one winters
The compressor that outlived three Zambonis retires in August. The fundraiser that replaced it took nineteen months and one very good pie auction.
LINDEN — The ice plant at the Linden arena has started its last summer. The replacement — modern, efficient, and roughly the price of a house — arrives in August, paid for without a dollar of debt.
The compressor went in the year the rink's current president was born. It outlived three Zambonis, two roof repairs and every prediction of its death since 2015, kept alive by a refrigeration tech from Acme who has serviced it for free "out of respect."
The nineteen-month fundraising drive tells you how these towns work: $118,000 of the total came in gifts under a hundred dollars. The single biggest line item was the fall pie auction, which cleared $9,400 and set what organizers believe is a county record for a saskatoon pie.
First ice goes in mid-September. The old compressor is not going to scrap — it is going on a stand in the lobby, with a plaque, which everyone involved agrees it has earned.
