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ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—AUGUST ', 2024 8 scholarship fund that can be used to cover 50% of the registration. Scholarships are awarded to kids based on parent's income. It can also be applied to if a parent loses a job. Councilmember Fabel noted from the packet materials that Arden Hills' residents make up about 12% of the participants. He asked if that is a consistent number. Carl Kuhl confirmed. He said the data from the past three years shows that number held at 12%. Councilmember Fabel said he imagines there are a lot of girls participating. Carl Kuhl replied that the growth in girl's hockey is about 25-30% over the last three years. Temporary Chairperson Rousseau asked how much it would cost to build another rink like this one. Carl Kuhl said a facility with a single sheet of ice costs $6 million. He couldn't venture a guess on the cost to build 8 rinks, today. A single sheet of ice doesn't generate enough revenue to maintain a facility. Councilmember Fabel asked how many sheets of ice they have now. Carl Kuhl said the super rink is owned by the National Sports Center. They have 8 sheets of ice. MVI is an anchor tenant in that building, along with Blaine, Spring Lake Park and Centennial. This re-vamp will be a$30 million investment. The biggest expense is the obsolete cooling system. They are moving from an R-22, Freon based system to an ammonia-based system. The anchor tenants are being asked to cumulatively put together$3 million. That would commit them to use the facility for another 20 years. MVI's portion of that is $750,000. Councilmember Fabel asked if this is like paying rent, up front. Carl Kuhl replied kind of. They guarantee that they will buy ice in the future. They still buy the ice on an annual basis. MVI receives a guarantee of 812 hours per season. They would still pay the market rate for the ice that year. It's $260/hour. They would still pay that. Councilmember Holden said Freon is bad for the environment. Carl Kuhl confirmed stating that R-22 is not being produced anymore. It is being traded between facilities right now when rinks close or upgrade. The upgrade being proposed would be a more environmentally friendly cooling system, along with lighting and other energy efficient upgrades. Councilmember Holden asked if MVI program uses this facility exclusively. Carl Kuhl replied for Mounds View and Irondale High School, if it's not 100%, it's 99.9%. This includes 8 high schools in their program. Temporary Chairperson Rousseau believes this is a much cheaper option to building our own. She asked if any of the other cities have indicated they will move forward.