A major face-lift to the community rink in Alameda is well underway.

"Its quite the project," explained committee member Darin McNabb. "It's something that needed to be done. Our boards were certainly deteriorating faster than we anticipated and the refrigeration system not being inside the cement had caused us some issues so it was time to fix it properly and get it done the right way."

Work started just under five months ago on the project where the cement was removed it the first ten days of demolition.

"It started on March 20th where we removed the old boards, old cement pad and refrigeration lines. From there we prepared the base, did some new gravel work and new weeping tiles.

The new cement and refrigeration system was poured on July 10th and takes 30 days to cure properly.

"Going forward we don't have 6 or 7 weeks of making ice, with the new system we should be able to make our ice in 3 or 4 days. It sure will be a lot of time saving for our volunteers."

McNabb says following the cement curing properly, the new boards will arrive in the next two weeks and will be installed shortly after the 30 day curing period. Along with the new boards, bleachers and players boxes will also be upgraded.

"Our season doesn't start until November, so we are quite a bit ahead of schedule," he concluded.

Removal of the old cement pad started around March 20th.