The 100 skaters who step on the ice at the Craik Rink each week are going to see the light this winter when a new ceiling and lighting is put in.

Jason Nolting, president of the Craik Rink Board, said the arena would be shutting down for around two weeks sometime this winter to install a suspended insulated ceiling and energy-efficient lighting over the rink’s ice surface. He said the improvements would come at a cost of over $68,000, with the cost split down the middle between the rink and funding through the federal government’s Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund (CIIF).

“It is really dark right now and as far as the users go and (new lighting) will be the biggest benefit,” said Nolting. “It will really brighten the place up. With the way the rink is built, it’s hard (to improve lighting). You could paint the rafters somehow, but if you know the rink it’s almost impossible to do that.”

Nolting said the suspended insulated ceiling would have a “foil back” with insulation on the other side, which will reflect light down onto the ice surface “so it doesn’t disappear into the building.” He said there are quite a few rinks that have had the upgrade done and it really makes a difference.

The Craik Rink, which has been in operation since 1949 after the previous rink was destroyed by a cyclone in 1945, had its ice put in last week and saw its first public skaters of the 2012-13 season Nov. 13. The senior men’s Craik Warriors hockey team uses the arena as its home rink, a number of kid’s hockey teams from other towns come to play in the rink almost daily and there is also a rec. hockey team that plays out of Craik.

Nolting said the rink board is raising the $34,000 for its portion of the upgrade through a volunteer farming initiative that is employed every year to raise money to keep the rink going. He said the rink “has some land” and receives help from local farmers in the seeding, spraying and harvesting of the field with the money going back to the operation of the rink.

“What I’m thinking is we have the (Warriors), so we’ll probably try to pick two weeks when they’re not playing at home or they can switch their games or something hopefully so they aren’t playing at home (to do the upgrades),” he said. “I’m hoping that they can get it done in two weeks and then we’ll be off to the races.”