Features

Iceland Upgrades Delayed By Matthew Artz

Friday April 01, 2005

City-mandated upgrades to Berkeley Iceland will be delayed by six months, according to rink owners, after city officials rejected the rink’s initial proposal to upgrade its facility. 

In response, Iceland requested Tuesday that they have until next April to fix code violations that city officials deemed serious enough to threaten shutting down the rink last January. 

A city audit of Iceland last year found 36 violations, the most serious connected to the rink’s ammonia-based system used to chill the ice surface. 

While Iceland’s submittal included three major ammonia system safeguards, required by the Fire Department, it didn’t provide enough detail about their specifications and it didn’t integrate them with other code upgrades requested by the city, according to a letter from Planning Director Dan Marks. 

“The city has determined that the submittal is not comprehensive or detailed enough to meet the minimum requirements...,” he wrote. Without more details, he wrote, the city would not forward the plan to a consultant for further review. 

Marks said that the city has not yet had time to review Iceland’s latest submission. 

Iceland officials were not available for comment at press time.