Fund drive to buy Zamboni for Silver Lake ice rink successful

The Zamboni that will be purchased for the Silver Lake rink. /Submitted photo

The Zamboni that will be purchased for the Silver Lake rink. /Submitted photo

A voluntary donation drive to purchase a Zamboni ice resurfacing machine for use on the Silver Lake ice rink in Schmalfeldt Park has raised enough to go ahead and purchase the machine.

Allen Dunski, a member of the village Parks Committee and one of the driving forces behind the ice rink, said he was made aware of the availability of the machine by a friend.  It is a 1972 Zamboni that was bought by a private party from the village of Viroqua. Viroqua used it for many years on their ice rink. The private party bought it to take care of the ice on his pond for his children and their friends who all played hockey. The children are all grown up and moved away, so the seller wanted to find it a good home.

Originally the seller wanted $5,000, but Dunski bargained that down to $2,500 after the seller heard how it was going to be used. Then fellow Park Committee member Laura Francart and Dunski decided to try and raise the funds via donation, including a GoFundMe page, instead of asking the village for the money.

“It is great deal,” Dunski said in an email to westofthei.com. “A typical non-running Zamboni goes for around 10 grand. The seller is also including 3 extra ice shaving bars $300.00 each), spare studded tire ($150.00), 2 heavy duty hockey goals ($500.00) and a bucket full of hockey pucks.”

The village funded the ice rink, which was installed over the New Years holiday. The re-usable materials cost $3,800. Labor to set it up was donated.

The online fundraising for the Zamboni took place over about two weeks and reached its $2,500 goal Saturday.

Dunski had built a homemade ice resurfacing device, which worked to a point. But the Zamboni will be able to shave the ice surface and collect the shavings before laying down a fresh coat of water, “which will make the ice rink surface look like glass,” Dunski said.

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8 Comments

  1. Greg Galich says:

    Great job. You folks are changing the way this village operates for the better. Again Allen and Laura thanks for a job well done.

  2. Russ says:

    Now they have something that works to store in the Fire Dept building.

  3. Insurance says:

    Hopefully they have insurance on this Zamboni. Based on the way the volunteer firefighters maintain some of their other equipment ,,,,,,not sure how long it will last.

  4. Insurance says:

    Don’t see you volunteering to do work in town. Items fixed, police, fire ems and now a make over for the office. Its all working well.

  5. You can't be that dense, can you? says:

    You don’t see me volunteering because unlike you, I do it all year long, and not just when it will benefit myself or my friends.

  6. Dense person says:

    I don’t see you helping anyone in Silver Lake. This is our community. You live some where else. If you are helping a community its not here or I would know it.

  7. Speaking of dense says:

    How is that Zamboni working for you? Lol, app that money and nothing to show for it. Keep the great work up.

  8. You can't make this stuff up! says:

    It’s bad enough that Village residents are paying for an ice rink that a hand fulll of people use, but now Mr Nopenz and his buddies want us to pay for a parking lot also? I’ve never seen more than 4 people at the rink at any given time and the ball diamond there is hardly used. Why are our tax dollars going to such nonsense? More good old boy politics and unfortunately at the expense of hard working residents.

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