Cold cash shortage may ice carnival events

Snow and cold may not save two signature events of a winter celebration in Minnesota's capital city, threatened to be scaled back for lack of green.

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Mid-winter thaws turned ice carvings and snow sculptures into lumps of melting mush in recent years, so Winter Carnival organizers in St. Paul were giddy with the current snow cover and frosty temperatures. But with just days of fundraising remaining, organizers said they have less than a third of the money they need for the ice-carving and snow-sculpting competitions.

And the timing's bad, considering television crews will be setting up in Rice Park -- site of the ice-carving contest -- to film the U.S. Figure Skating Championships during the carnival.

"All eyes are on the city," said Kate Kelly, president of the St. Paul Festival & Heritage Foundation, which puts on the carnival Jan. 23 to Feb. 3.

If the organization's "Stock in a Block" fundraising effort doesn't raise enough money, Kelly said she might have to cut either the ice or snow competition, allow fewer competitors or reduce the space used.