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Hockey Season Must Be Soon

If they're making ice, hockey season can't be far off. Last week, workers at the iWireless Center in Moline began the annual laborious process of building the rink, and it should be finished by this weekend.
Kevin Snodgrass is Director of Operations for the center.
Workers first assemble the walls of the rink, and put down a layer of insulation on the cement floor. Then they connect 25 miles of tubing that will carry a mixture of water and antifreeze that keeps the ice cold. Sand is packed by hand around the tubes, then it's covered with ice, one very thin layer at a time.

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At first, 1/100 of an inch at a time, later add layers of 1/16 of an inch.

Some local hockey leagues will begin using the ice on Sunday (9/27), and training camp for the Quad City Mallards begins the following weekend (10/2).

When the iWireless Center hosts other shows through next spring, a fiberglass floor protects the ice. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.