Atlas Park has melt-proof rink

Despite the recent wave of warm and wet weather, more than 300 skaters have gone out for a spin at the Atlas Park skating rink. The 40-by-40-foot rink, which opened on Friday, January 12, will stay open about two months, until the weather warms and the fountain can be restored. On Saturday, January 13, Sheila Smith Gonzalez brought her two kids, Harry, 7, and Emma, 4, for their very first skate.
“She’s loving it,” Smith Gonzalez said, pointing to Emma, who spun around in circles and periodically toppled over. Gonzalez-Smith said she would most definitely return to give her kids another chance to skate at the rink, which is made of synthetic ice.
Billed as less expensive and more manageable - it doesn’t melt - than regular ice, synthetic ice is made from high-tech polymers, a synthetic plastic, and skates are outfitted with plastic bottoms rather than sharp blades to cut through ice.
“It can be used in any location from 100 degree weather in Arizona, to someone’s back yard in Florida, to an unseasonably warm winter in Queens,” joked Michael Gallant, president of Perfect Parties USA, from which Atlas Park rents the rink.
The rink named, “Skate Central,” will be open daily from noon to 8 p.m., with special events to be scheduled regularly. The cost to take a spin is $2 on weekdays and $4 on weekends for a 30-minute session, and skate rentals cost $4. Atlas Park shoppers can even get a break on the cost of skate rentals and admission price by redeeming coupons for $1 off skating for every $10 spent at any one of the many stores at The Shops at Atlas Park.