What Mentor Ice Arena’s east-rink chiller replacement could mean for local ice sports

The City of Mentor has put the East Rink floor and chiller replacement at Mentor Ice Arena out to bid, but has not told the families who skate there what the work will cost, when it will run, or how hockey, skating, and homeschool programs will keep their ice time.

The legal notice, dated Sept. 15, directs bidders to a bid set and two addenda, Addendum #1 and Addendum #2, and requires bids to follow the linked specifications. But its bid deadline reads 12 p.m. June 8, 2026 — more than three months before the notice was issued. The city has not explained the discrepancy. [n1, q2, f_addenda, qa1, f_deadline_past]

The ice at stake

Mentor Ice Arena, at 8600 Munson Road, has two regulation-size rinks — the East Rink and the West Rink — plus a studio rink. The East Rink seats 300; the West Rink seats 800. Each rink has four locker rooms, and the facility includes a snack bar, three meeting rooms, a pro shop, and meeting and event rooms.

The arena hosts competitive and recreational hockey for all ages, interests, and skill levels. Travel hockey teams — Mite, Squirt, PeeWee, and Bantam — play in the Cleveland Suburban Hockey League, with summer registration, spring tryouts, and practices beginning in early September. Mentor Youth Hockey also fields in-house Mini Mites and the ADM Blue skill-development program for ages 6-8. Families seeking travel and recreational hockey information can call arena staff at (440) 974-5730.

Fall programming at the arena includes public skates Saturdays and Sundays from 1:30 to 3 p.m., homeschool skates Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to noon, and luncheon skates Fridays from 12:15 to 1:45 p.m., all starting the first week of October and running through late April. The arena notes listed skate times are subject to change because of Holiday Skates, Cosmic Skates, and ice programs, and directs skaters to the website calendar for the most up-to-date schedule.

Registration for those fall sessions opened at 8 a.m. Sept. 7 and closes at 5 p.m. Sept. 25, with online registration available 24/7 and in-person staff help weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Mentor Figure Skating Club operates out of the arena, with a pathway from Learn to Skate USA classes for ages 3 and up into specialty figure skating programs, private lessons, and synchronized skating; skaters must hold club membership to contract club ice sessions.

The arena hosted the Cleveland Rust Belt Showcase from Sept. 18-20, 2026.

What the city has published before

The city has published schedule information in comparable facility notices before: its 2019 West Rink bleacher procurement listed a May 10, 2019 bid deadline and a Sept. 13, 2019 completion date.

Questions to ask

Families can direct questions about hockey and recreational programming to arena staff at (440) 974-5730. The sealed-proposal process runs through the Purchasing Department at 8500 Civic Center Boulevard, Mentor.