"This year we got two weeks of skating," Evergreen Park & Recreation District Executive Director Cory Vander Veen told the Canyon Courier after last winter. "It's usually two months. We've been losing several days every year."
That quote is why the district has started paying for ice it can control. This fall the EPRD board approved $50,000 for used rink boards and agreed to study an outdoor rink. One of the sites under discussion is the old skatepark behind Wulf Recreation Center. The upgrade to that old park, the new All-Wheels Skatepark at Buchanan Park, should be close to finished by the time the lake freezes. A rink in Evergreen sits today about where that skatepark sat a few years ago. And the skatepark's progress is the clearest guide to how the rink could happen.
A season that kept getting shorter
Evergreen Lake opened for skating on January 23 in the 2025–26 season. The Canyon Courier reported that it was the latest opening on record at the time. Warm weather closed the lake again on February 6. On February 20, EPRD park operations manager Jarred Lilyhorn gave his final notice that the season was over. He gave it from a canoe.
The shrinking is a trend, not one bad year. In 2025, skating ended on February 19 after warm weather left the surface rough and unsafe. Winter 2022–23 was one of the best ice seasons in recent memory, and skating lasted into early March 2023.
When the ice failed, the winter calendar went with it. Last season EPRD canceled its 15th annual Pond Hockey Championship Tournament and the New Year's Eve Icefest. The New Year's Day Lake Plunge moved to March 1. The Plunge raises money for EPRD and its INSPIRE program, and it went ahead on even thinner ice. Vander Veen said the district lost most of its skating and event revenue that winter. The skating aides, instructors and high school employees who depend on those hours lost work too.
What the park board actually approved
The rink effort started with residents. Brad Strong and Joe Blackwell, two local skaters who each built backyard rinks, formed a volunteer group called Rally for the Rink. They pitched EPRD on an indoor rink open all year. Both men told the Courier about the time spent driving down the hill. Blackwell described an hour each way to a suburban Denver rink. Strong regularly took his daughters to Lakewood for figure skating and hockey. The group held its first public session at Wulf Recreation Center on May 14, the Canyon Courier reported. It says 98% of the 185 people who answered its survey felt a rink was needed, and most of them preferred an indoor one.
The district has started with something more modest. According to the Canyon Courier's report on the board's fall actions, the board did three things:
- approved $50,000 for staff to buy a secondhand dasher board system, the low walls that enclose a rink
- planned a feasibility study for a rink that would likely be outdoor and uncovered
- noted that the rink would also need a refrigeration system, which is a separate piece of equipment from the boards
"We discussed using it on the lakehouse grass area or at Wulf Recreation Center at the old skate park," Vander Veen told the Courier. "We could also put a roof over it and have natural or refrigerated ice." He said the rink would serve hockey, skating, broomball and curling, and that the district would keep using the lake when the weather allows. He was also direct about the bigger ask. "I know hockey proponents want an indoor, year-round facility, but that's a tough one to justify."
Rally the Rink called the steps "exciting milestones." The group plans to raise donations for the early plans while still working toward a permanent indoor rink. At the May session, residents raised the hard questions themselves: water use, land, zoning and cost. EPRD staff said the board had asked for pricing on a tension-fiber cover for the district's tennis courts. That price would also give a rough idea of what an outdoor rink usable eight months a year might cost.
The skatepark already took this route
At that same May session, EPRD board member Ally Hilgefort said the effort behind the new skatepark began the same way. Here is how that project went from an idea to concrete:
- 2023. Matt Buzas and his family started the push. They formed the Evergreen Skatepark Coalition and made their pitch to the EPRD board on June 27.
- Grant writing. Local skaters Calvin and Cameron Cornachia and Josh Tapp helped write grant letters and raise money. Great Outdoors Colorado awarded $650,000 toward Buchanan Park, and $200,000 of it went to the skatepark.
- December 2025. The board approved a design-build contract with California Skateparks capped at $850,000. The original estimate was $800,000, and the colored-concrete design raised it. The 10,500-square-foot park was designed by Evergreen native Jaxon Statzell and is aimed mainly at intermediate riders. EPRD put in $350,000 at the start, and the district says more than half the funding came from non-taxpayer sources.
- Full funding. At a February 23 community meeting, Buzas said a private donation from JR Iannaccone brought the skatepark to full funding. Bistro Del Lago and Iannaccone, who owns JR's Landscaping, both donated to the skatepark.
- May 26, 2026. Groundbreaking. Boulders dug up during the I-70 Floyd Hill realignment are being built into the park.
That is roughly three years from a family's pitch to a park nearing completion. It took a coalition, a state grant, a contract that grew with the design, and a local business owner who closed the last gap.
The skatepark also connects directly to the rink. The new Buchanan facility is the upgrade to the small, outdated skatepark tucked behind Wulf Recreation Center. That old site is one of the two places EPRD named for a possible rink. The rink effort has its first public money and a feasibility study coming. It has no chosen site, no design, no cost estimate and no timeline yet.
Where both projects stand this fall
| All-Wheels Skatepark | Ice rink | |
|---|---|---|
| Started by | Buzas family and the Evergreen Skatepark Coalition, 2023 | Rally for the Rink: Brad Strong and Joe Blackwell |
| District money so far | $350,000 initial commitment, $850,000 contract cap | $50,000 for used dasher boards |
| Site | Buchanan Park | Lake House grass area or the old Wulf skatepark, under discussion |
| Status | Substantial completion expected late November or early December 2026 | Feasibility study planned |
The skatepark's finish date has moved more than once. In September the Courier reported an October completion. EPRD's October 26 capital update now says late November or early December. The same update expects the Buchanan Park pavilion to reach substantial completion in mid-November. The district hasn't announced a grand opening yet. EPRD's Buchanan Park improvements page is the place to watch.
This winter, before any of it exists
The lake is still Evergreen's only public ice for the coming season. As of late October, EPRD's public ice skating page says it will post 2026–27 season information once there is an opening day. It doesn't give a target date.
Buchanan Park is also getting a year-round indoor option, but not for skaters. The planned fieldhouse will have a 14,000- to 20,000-square-foot gym with two to three dividable courts for pickleball, tennis, volleyball, basketball or turf sports, plus an indoor walking track. EPRD expects construction to start this winter and finish in spring or summer 2027. Centennial-based A.D. Miller is the contractor, with a cap of $3.4 million and up to $400,000 in contingency.
The next chances to weigh in are on the calendar:
- November 9, 6 p.m. EPRD hosts a public open house on the fieldhouse plans and timeline in the Bergen Peak Room at Buchanan Park Recreation Center.
- Monthly EPRD board meetings. Hilgefort has encouraged residents to speak during public comment.
- rinkrally.com. Rally for the Rink is looking for volunteers to research rink types, costs, and whether a rink should be privately owned or run by EPRD. It also wants to hear from residents who have concerns.
The skatepark took about three years from the Buzas family's first pitch to a park nearing completion. The rink effort now has its first $50,000, a study ahead, and a possible site at the old Wulf skatepark.
Mary Rosinski follows the Buchanan Park builds, the lake's ice and the rink study as closely as she follows the market. If you'd like to know how those projects affect the parts of Evergreen you're watching, Closing Colorado is glad to talk it through. Start Your Mountain Move.
