Mission Valley Ice Arena makes progress towards ultimate goal

by Jason Blasco
| August 2, 2018 3:09 PM

Hilary and her husband Mike Lozar together tried to develop creative ways to raise additional funds for the Mission Valley Ice Arena in the summer.

During this group brainstorm, they collectively came up with the idea of playing street hockey at the Annual Flathead Lake Cherry Festival.

Lozar said the end result of the brainstorm finished with a successful fundraiser.

“We came up with the idea of group brainstorming between my husband and I and we had huge help from our volunteers,” Lozar said. “We decided on street hockey because it was easy and affordable.”

Lozar credited the Greater Polson Community foundation for allowing their concept to come to fruition at the Cherry Festival.

The Mission Valley Ice Hockey Arena is still in the process of raising the necessary funding to make the concept come to fruition, according to Lozar.

“We are on the verge of making a location decision,” Lozar said. “We have two locations and both of them have a great list of pros and cons. Once we make our location decision final, we will be in a position to move onto the next phase.”

The Mission Valley Ice Hockey Arena is considering two locations including one on the Ridgewater Complex by the Aquatics Center and the other building is located downtown on Seventh Avenue.

“I would hope by the end of the summer that we are waiting for a pricey piece of the puzzle to fall into place,” Lozar said. “We are at over half. We need to raise another $1 million to be 100 percent financed including having emergency funds and funding for salaries.”

Several key contributors who have been involved in helping further initiatives of the arena include Mike Lozar, Carmine Mowbray, Steve Lozar and Katie Walker.

“I feel like we have a lot going for us and we are one big decision from holding up right and plowing forward,” Lozar said. “We are ready to build sooner once we have that decision made. We appreciate the community turning up and offering great support. That is why we are doing what we are doing.”