PORT ANGELES – The Winter Ice Village in Port Angeles, will be more of a spring ice village.

The Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce has decided to delay the annual ice-skating rink in downtown Port Angeles due to the coronavirus outbreak locally.

The Winter Ice Village was set to open in early December, but now is may run mid-March through mid-April. A firm date is still being sorted out.

Chamber Executive Director Marc Abshire says the Chamber received significant support and information from local health officials in making decisions about  when and how to open the Winter Ice Village this December, and had been planning to go ahead with the ice rink over the holidays.  But the recent, significant increase in COVID-19 cases, both locally and across the region, compelled the Chamber to make the decision postpone.

“It’s about uncertainty and it’s about risk and we just decided it makes more sense to provide the ice rink at a time when we’re pretty sure we’re going to be able to go ahead and do that.  And we’re just asking the kids and everyone else to wait about 90 more days and we’ll have that ice rink out.”

This would be the third year for the outdoor, covered skating rink, which has been extremely popular in attracting locals and visitors to the downtown.