Let The Skating Begin
Ice as smooth as glass greeted city residents stopping by the outdoor ice oval yesterday 250News photo
Prince George, BC – Skaters of all ages and abilities took to the ice as part of an open house to launch the 15th season of the local outdoor ice oval beside the Exhibition Grounds.
Outdoor Ice Oval Society Board Director, Shelley Rennick, said she was pleased with the turn-out. "It's great," said Rennick. "It's nice to see that there's some long and some short track (skates) ; some hockey skates and some figure skates; and some little kids and some adults out on the ice."
The society is completely volunteer-run and Rennick said the base of volunteers that works to build and maintain the ice has been working extremely hard to get a good base layer in place. "We are starting to have enough of a base that we don't have to worry so much about the freeze/thaw cycle," she said. "Because of weather fluctuations and the difference in skates, we need that base so that we're not worrying about it every time we get a bit of warm weather."
Members of the Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club gave a demonstration of their sport and city residents were able to try out the longer blades. Rennick pointed out the club mainly trains indoors because most members are short track skaters, but said the difference between a short track and a long track is 'building up' the speed skating community.
"I think next year is going to be the year because we're going to be building a new building in preparation for the Canada Winter Games. And then the Canada Winter Games will be better advertising than anything else we could possibly do, right?"
Construction on a permanent facility that will include equipment storage, a mezzanine, change rooms and some office space will begin in the spring.
Comments
I don’t believe I’ve seen the new building design on this one . It is nice to see family’s out in the fresh air as photo.
Does anyone know where we can rent skates for a few days? I have company visiting and would love to take them skating to the Oval.
“Construction on a permanent facility that will include equipment storage, a mezzanine, change rooms and some office space will begin in the spring.”
That looks like it will be a winter version of the type of building at the soccer fields.
I have not seen a price tag or design of that either.
They will have to do something about a temporary refrigeration system under the ice oval, similar to what was done in Halifax. I expect the total of the two to be in the $1.5 to $2million range.
Another legacy …. ;-)
I would imagine that they will need a Zamboni and Zamboni storage as well. The have one for the outdoor rink in Kelowna by the lakeshore.
Does anyone know what they do for that now? Just flood it every night or so, or use the Zamboni from the CN Centre?
I thought the society was given an ice resurfacing machine a year or two ago. Might not be a Zamboni though, it could be an Olympia.
Response to Gus’s earlier comments, chill out dude and go skating the Xmas stress is getting to you.
seamutt … or seamut ….. I think it is you who needs some glühwein to enjoy the days.
Merry Christmas to you too.
Sorry, I used to skate on my ankles when I as in grade school …… gave it up … continued with my downhill skiing instead.
Roller skating no problem.
Something portable maybe so that they do not have to store it on site due to security concerns?
http://www.portarinxandbambini.com/bambini.shtml
I have not been there for a few years, so maybe they built something to house it? Not a very secure spot though.
pretty sure they just use a water truck and drive it around. And a sweeper on a bobcat to clean it. Think you might be able to rent skates from Koops?
I thought they got a Zamboni and its stored besides the parking lot near the entrance to Kin 2. I know I’ve seen a Zamboni parked in there before.
gus,
With all of your hot air it should be no problem to re-surface the oval in a couple of breaths. If you don’t know what the situation is at the oval (I do ) why comment?
Why comment?
Easy!
It is a City facility operated in the main part by volunteers, but will be part of the winter games facilities when additional money will be coming to the facility which will be built with City funds.
I am interested in development in this City as proven through decades of being involved closely with such developments.
This is a site that many people come to and it is obvious that some have information to share with no questions asked.
You, balboa, however, have to ask stupid questions and make stupid attacks on my person.
Not very productive.
Learn how to play nice.
Gus you may want to check out a presentation the society made to mayor and council a while back as it has a photo of the zamboni they have and the shack they have been using for storage. http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/mayorcouncil/councilagendasminutes/agendas/2011/2011_05_09/documents/Deleg_Ice_Oval_ppt.pdf
I sincerely thank you for that Different Perspective.
Sometime I do get tired of doing the hunting for the information, especially when I figured that given the topic of the news posting, people who are users or familiar with the operations would know about it much more quickly.
Even though I do not use the facility myself, in fact the only facility that I use is the aquatic centre since I like swimming 50m lengths, I knew from past info that the oval has an active volunteer base. I am also reminded once more that the payments for use are by the honour system.
If you are involved personally, thanks for doing a great job for those who enjoy using the facility.
I would support putting down a refrigeration system and keep the oval an outdoor one. There are a number of good quality outdoor skating ovals in the world.
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