About the KVFD ” Ice Watch”Tickets for the Ice Watch are printed annually and distributed when the weather starts getting really cold. Envelopes with the tickets are placed in local businesses where you can get a ticket and fill it out with your name, address, phone number and guess the time and date you think the ice will break. Once enough ice forms on the river, a tripod is set up about a mile south of the village, and three miles north of the Bulls Bridge Dam. A clock on the tripod starts ticking at 12 a.m. on a deadline date in February. Once the ice does begin to move downriver the tripod goes with it. Once the tripod moves 100 feet from its starting point the clock stops, the time is recorded and an Ice Watch winner is declared. Half the total pot goes to the winner, the rest to the KVFD operating budget.

The tradition began here in 1978, when local newspaper publisher, the late John Greene who owned the Kent Good Times Dispatch for years, brought the idea back from a similar event he’d seen in Alaska.

Even in a year when the ice doesn’t form or last to the deadline date the contest is transformed into a drawing and a winning guess is pulled out of the pile. In all the years since 1978, there has only been eight such drawings. Past winners have split as much as $3,650 with the fire department.

Previous Winning Times

1978 March 18 12:00 a.m. $850

1979 March 16 1:13 p.m. $1,200

1980 March 17 10:39 a.m. $1,382

1981 Feb.20 12:12 p.m. $2,400

1982 March 13 4:38 p.m. $2,250

1983 Feb.22 10:40 a.m. $1,500

1984 Feb.16 9:10 p.m. $2,200(Drawing)

1985 Feb.26 4:12 p.m. $2,400

1986 Feb.25 1:40 a.m. $2,600

1987 March 10 10:31a.m. $3,400

1988 March 7 7:34p.m. $3,650

1989 Feb. 22 11:12 a.m. $3,310

1990 Feb.27 4:15 p.m. $1,905 (Drawing)

1991 March 9 2:16 p.m. $1,030 (Drawing)

1992 Feb.24 3:51 a.m. $1,595

1993 March 23 3:20 p.m. $1,250

1994 March 17 3:27 p.m. $1,585

1995 Feb.23 11:39 a.m. $ 796

1996 March 5 8:23 a.m. $ 662 (Drawing)

1997

1998

1999

2000 Feb.28 9:55 p.m. $2,328

2001 Feb.24 1:22 p.m. $2,307

2002 March 9 7:15 p.m. $1,280 (Drawing)

2003 March 18 1:07 p.m. $2,604

2004 March 5 12:55 p.m. $2,614

2005 Feb.15 7:30p.m. $2,022 (Drawing)

2006 March 4 7:30 p.m. $1,156 (Drawing)

2007 March 16 3:35 a.m. $1,827

2008 March 8 7:30 p.m. $1,441 (Drawing)

2009 February 23 10:58 a.m. $1,808

2010 February 19 $1342.00 (Drawing)

Entries must be Received or Posted by the deadline date which is printed on the entry ticket by 11:59pm

A drawing will be held in the event of no ice.