Joe Plumb scrapes ice blocks smooth and flat at the site of the Winter Carnival Ice Palace, where construction started on Sunday, Jan. 29. The Carnival theme this year, “Roman around Carnival” is bringing an icy Colosseum to town. (News photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Rome wasn’t built in a day. And the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Ice Palace won’t be, either. But the Ice Palace Workers 101 are currently working hard and around the clock to build the Palace, a Colosseum this year, in five days — a feat which took 20 years in ancient Rome.

Of course, Romans weren’t working with finicky ice, an unusually warm January and a Feb. 3 deadline — the start of Carnival. The 2023 theme is “Roman around Carnival.”

The IPW’s original plan was to start construction on Jan. 20, but it took nine more days for the ice to get thick enough to work with. It’s still pretty thin, though.

“It feels good,” IPW 101 Director Dean Baker said on Sunday, Jan. 29, the first day of the build. “I wish it was a little thicker. But it’s thick enough to build with.”

Asked how thick the ice is, Baker pointed to the blocks being stacked around 100 feet away and said only “about that thick.” The ice looked to be a little under a foot thick.

Heather Rudisill pushes ice blocks downstream to the site of the Winter Carnival Ice Palace, where construction started on Sunday, Jan. 29. She said the Palace build is her favorite part of Carnival and she had been waiting excitedly for the ice to get thick enough to start. (News photo — Aaron Marbone)

Baker said he was down at the site every day in the past few weeks, measuring the ice, clearing snow off and hoping to start as soon as possible. A crew armed with shovels and snowblowers cleared off heavy snow from the surface on Saturday.

Winter Carnival Committee Chair Jeff Branch said the last week has been full of people asking “will you have it?” and some “naysayers” who believed there wouldn’t be an Ice Palace this year. But he said they’ve had worse conditions for a Palace than this in the past.

“It feels good. I was just telling Rob (Russell) that a lot of stress and pressure is off now,” Branch said. “It’s crunch time. Get ‘er done.”

Russell will succeed Branch as chairman after this Carnival.

Branch said it always takes until the Palace starts rising for people to get in the Carnival spirit.

Crews pick up blocks of ice from Pontiac Bay on Sunday, Jan. 29, while they work on the construction of the 2023 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Ice Palace. (News photo — Aaron Marbone)

Russell said the day felt “magical,” but he actually wished it was colder. He feels it’s not a “real” starting day build unless it’s below zero and he can’t feel his fingertips.

“It’s warm,” Brandon Phelps said. “Too warm. Mother Nature’s not happy.”

The Colosseum has been scaled down by 10 feet, to 70 feet in diameter. Baker he would have gone 20 feet smaller, but the IPW 101 talked him down to 10, and they were making quick work on Sunday.

“Great crew,” Baker said.

Branch said if they cut 340 blocks a day for five days, they’ll have what they need. He estimated that they would take around 2,500 blocks out of Lake Flower, but they’re cutting 3,600. With thin ice, it takes more blocks to build higher.

IPW 101 volunteers began work on the Winter Carnival Ice Palace on Sunday, Jan. 29. The work on the Palace, a Colosseum this year, is starting late due to the weather, but is going strong. (News photo — Aaron Marbone)

Branch expected they’ll form “night crews” to work later shifts and keep the build moving to meet deadline. Sure enough, on Monday night, volunteers held their first night shift to work on the Ice Palace.

The original Colosseum was built using slave labor. The IPW uses a kinder word: “volunteers.”

Branch said they are always looking for more volunteers, and there is plenty to be done this week.

“The more the merrier,” Branch said.

And on Sunday, the IPW 101 were merry.

“Excited to finally be here,” Joe Plumb said as he scraped blocks flat and uniform.

“This is my favorite part of Carnival,” Heather Rudisill said as she floated ice blocks downstream. She has been waiting for this.

Justin Pallack said he’s been part of the IPW for four years and it’s the “camaraderie and community” that brings him back.

“All the people you see here, they came down one day. Now they come back for years and years and years,” Branch said.

Mark Weller, who has been part of the IPW since he moved to town in 1985, said his friend Bill Madden, an IPW worker since 1981, has probably designed and built more Ice Palaces than anyone alive. He learned the techniques, skills and mathematics from the “old timers,” gathered a core group he calls the “Dirty Dozen” and has been perfecting their methods ever since.

Blueprints seen at the site on Sunday show towering archways leading into the circular Colosseum, where the throne room for Carnival Royalty will be set up. There will be stadium-style seats and ice sculptures all over inside the room.

After a pitch from Plumb last year, the Palace will be lit with a new LED lighting system.