The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is considering permanently closing the skating rink on Lake of the Isles, starting with the 2025-26 skating season, according to District 4 Park Commissioner Elizabeth Shaffer. The rink and its warming house have been winter activity fixtures in the Hill and Lake area for decades, but may fall victim to MPRB budget constraints and a warming climate.
Last year’s winter was the warmest in the recorded history of Minneapolis. The skating season lasted eight days, and cost the park board over $750,000. At that time, the board announced the closure of two rinks, at Powderhorn and Webber parks. Those rinks will remain closed this year, while the board walked back a proposal to close the Windom Park rink after community outcry. Shaffer says rinks being considered for closure in the 2025-26 season include Lake of the Isles, Matthews Park and Lyndale Farmstead Park.
While the park board points to climate change as one factor driving its closure decisions, budget constraints are a more immediate cause. On December 10, the board passed its first-ever two-year budget, for the years 2025-26. The budget approved by commissioners for 2025 totals $155 million, and relies on a maximum 8.27% tax levy approved by the Board of Estimate & Taxation.
However, that maximum levy still left a $1.5 million projected shortfall in the budget, which the board ascribed to inflationary pressure. While the 2025 budget is larger than last year’s, Commissioner Shaffer says the levy increase was applied almost exclusively to employee wage increases, and the board says it added over $3 million to the new budget due to recent labor settlements.
One way to close that shortfall? Rink closures.
According to park board staff, closure of the five rinks initially proposed would yield annual cost savings ranging from $70,112 to $86,636 per site. By contrast, the cost associated with the Lake of the Isles rink is $116,656, with warming house installation and removal accounting for $15,000 of that total.
In addition, the new budget makes reductions to operating hours for recreation centers, and also found savings by closing the North Commons Water Park for the year, which the board plans to demolish and replace with a new $45 million recreation center (see Hill & Lake Press, September 2024).
News of the proposed closure of the Lake of the Isles rink has left some local residents surprised, particularly those paying attention to the recent Cedar-Isles master planning process, which wrapped up just last year.
The resulting plan document sets out the MPRB’s 20-year vision for the park areas surrounding Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles. Prominently featured in the early concept discussions was a proposal to construct a permanent warming house for the Lake of the Isles rink.
That vision was subsequently scaled back to an improved, seasonal warming house that would replace the deteriorated current structure, but it remained a prominent feature. While adapting to climate change was a regular subject of discussion, at no point did the MPRB mention permanent closure of the rink as an imminent possibility.
Reached for comment, Commissioner Shaffer said she hopes Lake of the Isles and other rinks can still be saved, preserving lake skating as a community tradition: “If we close Lake of the Isles next year, it will be the end of lake rinks in our Minneapolis park system. I am glad residents are becoming aware now and am hopeful we still can find a way to provide this regional amenity in our supplemental budget work next year. I would also support taking a second look at reopening some rinks that were shuttered this season, particularly Powderhorn.”
