Making a skating rink in our backyard pond

Winter & (lots) of snow has arrived and we're trying to find out the best way to make our backyard a skating rink. We have a large pond, man made, and the city "maintains" it as it is a runoff pond. It is approximately 8 feet deep and was recently dredged by our city. Living in the heart of the midwest, we don't have to worry about cold temps. It's cold. And we have received A LOT of snow this year. The problem we are having is we are getting SO much snow, the ice gets insulated underneath the snow & it starts to melt & it's getting smooshy. Then when we go shovel the pond, the ice is mushy and we leave footprints in the ice. Now it is becoming bumpy and as we prepare to flood it with some hot water, we are wondering if this is the best thing to do. Should we wait for the next snow, when the entire pond is covered with a flat layer of snow, and flood it then? Would we get better results? Agh, I've google'd my questions and found some good insight, but no one seems to be blogging about how they maintain their pond in the winter. So, if anyone is out there with some great insight, please let me know. We plan on living here a long time & need to get the rink ready for skating for all the neighborhood kids!! By the way, I've got a slew of questions about ponds in the summer. Gardening is my new hobby but I don't know exactly what I am doing!!