NEENAH (NBC26) — A new plaza coming to Gateway Park in Neenah is making the city's downtown a little more cool. The plaza is being converted into a 122-foot-long ice rink.
The plaza was donated as a gift to the city. John Bergstrom, the chairman of Bergstrom Automotive, is part of a group of investors who bought the plaza are paying to operate it at no cost to the city.
"The plaza project is an outgrowth of a lot of us in the community trying to figure out how can we have a stronger downtown and how can we make our winters, especially for families, much more pleasant?" Bergstrom said. "We’ve run in to skating facilities in a lot of major places and we thought, ‘Why not do it here?’”
Construction will be completed by October 1st and the ice rink is expected to open in November.
"We can make cold ice 50 degrees and below," Bergstrom said. "We think that’s going to be mid-to-late November and run to March 15th.”
For the rest of the year, the plaza will provide an outdoor gathering space and venue for outdoor events. The plaza will also be complete with its own cafe.
"We're going to have a Globe Cafe where you can get S'mores or a hot fudge sundae or hot chocolate," Bergstrom said.
Bergstrom says he wanted to create a space where families could congregate and the community could come together.
"That's how it is in most of the communities in Northeastern Wisconsin, wonderful people that are giving back to make it a better place,” Bergstrom said.
"I think we are so lucky in the Fox Valley area that we have great individuals and businesses that are really committed to community and making it better," said Neenah resident Paula McNeil. "Not many places can brag about that.”
