MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — Despite fears in January that Morganotwn’s ice rink would be closed for the entire 2023-24 season, the Morgantown Ice Arena will be operating as usual this winter.

At the beginning of the year, community members rallied in downtown Morgantown after an announcement that the Morgantown Ice Rink would be closing for renovations for the entire 2023-24 season. Since then however, the Morgantown Hockey Association (MHA), BOPARC (Morgantown Board of Parks and Recreation) and the City of Morgantown have worked to keep the rink available to the community for the foreseeable future.

President of the Morgantown Hockey Association Frank Oliverio told 12 News that, although the current rink in White Park has been showing its age for many years now, it is still in good enough working order to serve the needs of the community and teams that use the ice on a daily basis.

As far as future plans go, Oliverio said officials are seriously considering the construction of an entirely new ice rink in Mylan Park; the consideration of an ice rink in Mylan Park goes back to at least February of this year, as previously reported by 12 News. Although there are not yet any concrete plans for the new rink, Oliverio said that he has “felt very good” about the talks that have happened so far.

In the meantime, Oliverio said the Morgantown Ice Arena will be kept open for the community with smaller renovations instead of the larger, more costly total renovation that was initially planned.