Stories in local newspapers follow the fundraising and political actions involved to start the project. The total cost of the rink had gone up to $300,000, which was pledged by "...33 prominent businessmen, professionals, and University of California professors..." [Oakland Tribune, 29 Nov. 1939]. Of course this being Berkeley there were the usual Planning Commission storm sessions. In a headline that could easily be from current Planning Committee reports, the headline of an article in the 14 Dec. 1939 Oakland Tribune stated:

HOME OWNERS FIGHTING RINK
Stormy Session of Planning Body Likely Tonight in Berkeley

The rezoning was apparently approved.

The St. Moritz Ice Skating Club played a key role in financing the rink. Members reportedly sold shares in the rink door-to-door to make it a real community effort.

The first National Skating Championships held West of the Mississippi River. And the winners were:

Yes, this Men's Champion is that Richard (Dick) Button - the obiquitous TV commentator for all [or so it seems] figure skating events. He went on to his first World Championships where he finished 2nd.

In June of 2003, Berkeley Iceland was installing new manifolds in it's refrigeration equipment as part of it's effort to comply with a Berkeley inspection report. To accomplish this, the cooler had to be emptied of ammonia, the refrigerant for the rink's icemaker. To accomplish this, the facility has two capture vessels built into the system, one to hold 600 lb. and one 2066 lb. The equipment is over 60 years old but well maintained and safe to use as long as it's integrity was maintained.

Because of it's age, details of the equipment and the process flow has been lost so details of the system can only be assessed from outside. The cooler itself was oversized for the duty it was doing; one theory is that it was a cooler that W. A. Bechtel - the builder of Berkeley Iceland - had used at Hoover Dam to cure concrete in the building of the dam, which was also a Bechtel project underway during the same period.

Prior to the installation of the new manifold, the rink had been reporting 600-750 lb of ammonia in the system. This is what the managers for decades had believed and reported to the city. When a release seal on one of the containment vessels vented ammonia, indicating that it was over capacity, the management was surprised and stopped the transfer. The total capacity of the two capture vessels was 2,666 lb so 750 lb of ammonia should have had no problem fitting in them. The ammonia that was vented was immediately detected at the fire station across the street from Iceland and firefighters were sent to investigate.

Iceland's management made a full report of what happened and cooperated with the city in determining why it happened. The rink management hired an outside engineering company to assess the capacity and estimate the actual volume of ammonia in the system. The rink also had the refrigerator accessed for it's integrity. During this period, rink management was in continuous contact with city personnel and raised the concern that they legally needed to make reports which include the amount of ammonia in the system, which they knew was over the previously reported 750 lb., but could not accurately state the volume until their engineer's work was completed. They were told to leave the reported volume as is until a better number was available. When the engineers completed their assessment, the estimate was that as much as 4,000 lbs could be in the system.

When combined with the rink management's inability to provide a plan that would satisfy the City's concerns about safety, monitoring and training for the aging ammonia system, city staff publicly accused the Berkeley Iceland management of hiding this fact and ordered them to remove the ammonia within one month - something that would have shut the rink and set a tone for all the subsequent actions. Because the City wanted the rink to continue to operate, they allowed the rink owners time to find a temporary refrigeration system so that a plan to replace the old cooling system could be drawn up.

The time limit to evacuate the ammonia was extended so that the portable refrigeration unit - also an ammonia-based refrigerator that was granted a permit by the fire department and other city agencies - could be driven to Berkeley and installed so that the rink wasn't closed for an extended period in the middle of the hockey and synchronized skating seasons. The owners had committed to the skaters to not interrupt a season already underway - and they kept that commitment. But it had a cost.

The portable unit turned out to be much more expensive than anticipated - on the order of $10,000 per month in higher costs. The combination of this added cost, the now growing cost of replacing the older refrigerator, and an apparent unfriendliness of the Berkeley city government, the majority owners decided that they didn't see how they could continue operating the rink in those conditions. The decision was difficult for them - most have more than 40 years of their lives involved in Iceland and skating in general - but they felt that they had no choice but to put the rink up for sale. It was a decision that surprised many, including the city, which seemed to be oblivious to the signals that Berkeley Iceland's management was giving them.

The owners put the rink up for sale as a rink hoping that someone would be able to put together support for continuing skating in Berkeley. The prospectus for the property - available at the website for the listing agent, GordonCommercial.com - did a very good job of showing the rink's history and value to the community, it's uniqueness as a building and rink, and the unique opportunity it represents. However, rink businesses in the greater Bay Area are not very profitable. The bigger rinks - from LogiTech in San Jose to Yerba Buena in San Francisco to Oakland Ice Center to Redwood Empire in Santa Rosa to VacaValley in Vacaville - all have problems but are supported by either the local governments or, in the case of Santa Rosa, a major trust fund.

In their April meeting, the Berkeley Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC) initiated landmark action for Berkeley Iceland, a building that had been on their action list since 1998. A group of supporters put together the application for the registration, which was submitted to the LPC in late May for the June 1st meeting. At that meeting, the owner's representative requested a continuance in the hearing, which was agreed to by all - both the LPC and the landmark applicants.

Recent meetings of supporters of the rink and Iceland's management have been started to see what can be done to preserve skating in Berkeley at Berkeley Iceland. An optimistic summary of these meetings is that IF a proposal that helps the owners return the rink to some profitability without a lot of debt burden on the Eastbay Iceland Corporation would be something that is of interest to them. At the same time, their feeling right now is that if someone offered them their asking price, they would sell the rink. They did not plan to sell the rink but feel the actions to date have left them with no other financially responsible decision.

Recently the managers of Iceland have heard rumblings through "friends of friends" that the city might be hearing some of the concerns the supporters have been pushing. Adding to this and attempting to organize the support will help put the pressure on the city to help Iceland. The one hope for keeping the rink open in the near future is for the city and current owners to work out an accommodation that will help the owners upgrade the facility. If not, the rink may be closed sooner than everyone expects because the owners cannot afford to continue operating an unprofitable business. Once closed, it would be much more costly for anyone who would want to open it as a rink again.