Mission Valley Ice Arena ready for 'next phase'

The Mission Valley Ice Arena took another step towards raising the necessary funds to make their vision of an ice arena complete.

The Ice Arena, a non-profit organization, unveiled its zamboni at the Fourth of July Parade in Polson.

Hilary Lozar, who is one of the key figures that is trying to accumulate the funds to make the Mission Valley Ice rink come to fruition, said the zamboni signifies her team’s progress towards making the Mission Valley Ice Arena become a reality.

“That is the main thing with our zamboni is it’s definitely our token of our commitment to get the project fully functioning,” Lozar said. “We are moving forward so the residents of Mission Valley can enjoy the ice rink.”

Lozar said her organization is currently having a name competition on their Facebook page trying to name the zamboni.

“We drew a lot of activity on the Fourth of July parade route,” Lozar said. “”We’ve gotten some really positive feedback from our parade viewers.”

The crowd at the Fourth of July parade lifted up ice like a dump truck forward and dumped ice out of the front of the machine to really entertain the crowd and signify the Mission Valley Ice Arena is ready for the “next phase.”

“We are about ready to start asking for the larger donations,” Lozar said. “We are currently getting donations from individuals and businesses. We are just making sure that we dot our I’s and the T’s are crossed. We are ready to revisit our blueprints, alert people, move forward with our neighbors at the Aquatic Center and soon ramp up for another fundraiser.”

Currently, the Mission Valley Ice Arena has a $1 million dollar private donation from an anonymous donor but they need an additional $1.5 million dollars to become fully operational by 2019.

“We talked about getting the next million dollars to break ground,” Lozar said. “I would say it will be a year or a year and a half before we can begin to break ground.”

Lozar, who credited Beacon Tire and Kara Bauer for making the Fourth Of July parade successful, said their flagship website www.missionvalleyicearena.com will soon feature a place where people who would like to donate can send them money.

“We don’t have a crowd funding page but people can donate to our actual website and it’s all tax deductible,” Lozar said. “We will have our tax ID and we are close to having that ready to go.”