In the winter months, teacher Ed Loiselle's days are bookended by hockey practices at the Shakopee Ice Arena. He's up at 4:45 a.m. to coach the boy's high school varsity team and later picks up his son when his youth hockey team's practice ends at 10:45 p.m.
"The reality of those extremes is just not normal," Loiselle said.
His isn't the only Shakopee hockey family in a scheduling pickle. With just one rink in a suburb of nearly 40,000, 40 youth teams and the high school teams scramble to get ice time, and they have to take whatever they can get.
But that may change soon, as the city of Shakopee considers plans to build a new two-rink arena, along with other updates to the existing Shakopee Community Center.
Mayor Brad Tabke is spearheading the effort to improve the community center and arena, but whether residents will support the project is still an open question. Three referendums that proposed creating community center updates, including a pool and another sheet of ice, have failed since 1999.
"I feel that our community really needs to have better amenities and services," Tabke said.
The City Council voted to move forward with the two-rink plan, and a consultant and an architect are looking at the feasibility of that option, drawing up designs and determining the cost. The City Council will discuss those findings at a March 31 meeting.
"I can't tell you the need," Loiselle said. "Basically, the other communities we compete against are getting 50 percent more ice than we are."