The mayor of Kamloops says the city is always looking at amenities, including the potential of a refrigerated outdoor sheet of ice.
But Ken Christian says having to postpone a hockey tournament in Heffley because it was warm last weekend shouldn’t trigger the city to spend several million dollars on outdoor ice.
“We’re looking at all these emerging sports, but this one is quite expensive. And I think we do have a lot of very expensive arenas now. And if you could move your hockey tournament into one of those arenas there, the nuance of having it outdoors, maybe just save that,” Christian says.
“Outdoor skating is something that comes up all the time, but remember we’ve just been through eight weeks where we had outdoor rinks. In Dufferin, in Juniper, all around the city. It’s just the timing of the tournament fell on a weekend that it was warm. I don’t think that, in and of itself, should necessitate the spending of $3 million dollars to try to build one of these facilities.”
The city is waiting to hear back on a grant worth $4.2 million, and has been since December of 2018. If it comes through, the city is recommending that council approve a project, estimated to cost $6.05 million, that would include an outdoor ice sheet getting built in Riverside Park.
That means with the current estimate, taxpayers would be asked to cover about $1.85 million, or just under 30 per cent of the project’s cost.
The spending would include upgrades to infrastructure in the park and flood mitigation work along the riverbank. The ice sheet component would cost $3 million, according to a report from city staff in late-2018.
James Gordon with the Kamloops Outdoor Skating Association says he’s been checking in on the status of the grant application for the park.
“We did actually check in with the city not long ago, we’ve been checking in with them every three months. The latest we’ve heard is we should have an answer by the end of March.”
Speaking on NL Newsday, he claims the postponement of “Hockey Night in Heffley” is a reason for the project.
“It’s really just an opportunity to try to keep this top of mind with the public. And we’ve asked some survey questions, people are generally very excited about it.
“Any of these kind of projects, cost is always an issue. But at the end of the day, we think we’ll get a great facility for the community that will get lots of use.”
