A Roller Skating Rink May be Coming to Red Arrow Park

In Winter, it’s Milwaukee’s own Rockefeller Center.

Slice of Ice at Red Arrow Park is a reader favorite. Families love the wintry downtown scene there, when ice skaters flock to the rink, sip hot cocoa, and kids push penguins around as they find their feet on the ice.

Now, the park may be put to use year round as a roller skating rink.

Milwaukee County supervisors approved a plan in June that would direct $175,000 towards a pilot program to transform the ice rink into a roller skating rink, despite budgetary concerns from some county supervisors and a veto in July from County Supervisor David Crowley.

A protective barrier may need to be installed over the concrete base, as well as temporary framing around the rink.

The Roller Skate at Red Arrow Park advocacy group has been lobbying since 2014. They maintain that using the rink as a roller skating rink is using the public county park as it is intended, and that the park doesn’t need to sit vacant in warm weather months.

They also say that additional funding is not needed and the area can be used for roller skating as is, with programming provided by the roller skate community. They say they have confirmed with the manufacturing company who built and installed the ice skating rink that the structure of the rink would support roller skating, similar to what other rinks across the country have done.

“Red Arrow Park is vacant for 75% of the year, whenever the weather can’t support ice skating,” said Terrence Clarke, coordinator of Roller Skate at Red Arrow Park, in a press release.

“We’re simply asking to use a public county park as intended, as stated by the manufacturer of the rink, without wasting taxpayer dollars on unnecessary infrastructure.”

To find out more about their efforts, visit their Facebook Page.