Ice maker keeps cool as part of business

Inside the sculpting room at Cono Cimino's ice-making company in Deer Park on Tuesday, it's very cold.

Or, as Cimino puts it, "It's nice. It's a comfortable zero degrees."

Tuesday's high temperatures were a reminder that the heat and the outdoor party season make this the busiest time of the year for his company, Apple Ice, in an industrial park near the Tanger Outlets at the Arches.

Each summer day, his crew pumps out 100 tons of bagged ice cubes and 50 tons of 300-pound blocks. Cimino has been in the business for eight years.

While the bagged ice at Apple moves at high speed, with forklifts crisscrossing the factory floor, the manufacturing process is more deliberate in Cimino's zero-degree sculpting room.

The walls of the room are lined with sculptures that are ready for delivery in the shape of Indian chiefs, swans and liquor luges (bartenders slide shots of tequila, vodka, etc., down the slopes).

The sculptors use a computer-aided design machine that rough-hews each 40-inch-by-20-inch block. Then, finer touches are made with chisels, grinders and chain saws. Apple Ice's catalog pages show the company's past ice creations, including a full-size billiards table and a 10-foot-long martini bar.