The ice in Little Bear East Arena will be removed Wednesday, March 15.

Members of the St. Ignace Recreation Advisory Committee, meeting Wednesday, February 8, agreed to keep the ice rink open until after the St. Ignace squirts hockey team’s championship game in Southgate March 17 to 19. The team uses the arena for practice.

Ice was kept until April the last several years, said Recreation Director Phil Hinkson, to accommodate the Northern Michigan Black Bears. That team has moved to Sault Ste. Marie.

The facility has been struggling with high heating and utilities costs and low revenue each winter. The board created a task force last month to bring events and programs for the ice rink, though many members believe marketing the facility for summer and fall events can be successful enough to absorb the facility’s high winter costs.

Asmall group of paintball buffs are interested in building a course at Doc Holle’s Silver Mountain ski and tubing hill, recreation board member Jerry Fenlon told the board. He said the group is approaching Moran Township’s planning commission to see if the plan is feasible at the facility, since the facility is in Moran Township.

Board member Marianne Huskey asked if the proposed paintball course would interfere with the new disc golf course at Silver Mountain. Mr. Fenlon said he was confident the situation could be worked out.

The board took no action on the issue.

Mr. Hinkson said Little Bear East’s Web site revisions are 89 percent complete. He said the site’s general recreation information page and its floor plan page are still under construction. Promotional brochures of the facility have also been printed and will be included in the facility’s marketing packages.