PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The outdoor ice skating rink in front of Wahconah Park is taking shape, and the city plans to open it early next week. 

If you pass by the historic park this weekend, you will notice a pop-up ice skating rink under construction on the property between Hudpucker's Pub and Grill and Thrive Diner. City officials hope for a soft launch early next week and have secured state funds for programmatic expenses and skate rentals. 

Parks, Open Space, and Natural Resources Manager James McGrath on Friday said it will take several days to build the ice.  The community will be notified through a social media post and a press release. 

Community members are asked to stay off the ice until given the OK from the city. 

Earlier this week, the City Council accepted $10,000 from the Massachusetts Office of Outdoor Recreation for programming opportunities at the 50-by-100-foot refrigerated rink. This will be used for staffing, youth assistants, adaptive skate aids, equipment rentals, bus vouchers, and other associated costs for public events. 

McGrath pointed out that Pittsfield owns the system and will know how to assemble, operate, and then disassemble it for the next year. 

"We're sort of at an interesting time here because it's kind of late in the winter, admittedly, but we're going to get some ice time out of the rink, and then we're going to pack it up, put it away, and we're going to bring it back out in subsequent years," he said. 

"And we own this system, so looking at the horizon, we'll be able to have this portable system in place at that site on Wahconah Street for many, many years to come, and certainly, the whole idea is that this rink is intimately coordinated with the site planning for the new Wahconah Park and all the civil work that we're doing down there."