Recently, Great Bend Police officers were notified that someone was trying to skate on Veterans Memorial Lake. Bad idea.
There may be ice on the lake, but it’s never safe for skating. As long as there have been kids, and a lake, that warning has been true.

Barton County rarely has the kind of sustained freezing temperatures that make it safe to skate on its bodies of water.
Skating on the lake is unsafe, and it’s not necessary. The artificial ice is still up in the courthouse square. The booth that loans out free skates is closed now, but any kind of skates will work and it’s almost a slick as real ice.

It’s too bad that the city doesn’t keep the skating open all winter. Perhaps it is a problem of manpower. If so, maybe some civic group would be willing to volunteer to run the booth and provide skates at certain times. If need be, the Volunteers in Action might schedule volunteers from the community.

Be that as it may, the artificial ice is there for the next few weeks at least. So, if you have the urge to skate, stay off the lakes and head to the square or to the roller skating rink.