New Buildings at Ice oval
Two new buildings at ice oval site in Prince George – photo submitted
Prince George, B.C. – Another Canada Winter Games legacy is being celebrated as the ice oval has two new buildings.One building will house equipment for the oval, while the other will be used by skaters to get into their skates.
The skate change building will be familiar to anyone who was the Canada Games Plaza during the Games, as it was the Canfor House.
Kathy Lewis, President of the Outdoor Ice Oval Society, is thrilled to have these new buildings. “I can’t wait to see the smiles on the faces of skaters who come out next winter,” said Lewis, explaining that the Canfor House will be used as a skate change area for public skating. “Everything was outdoors before and now parents can tie their children’s skates in a warm building,” said Lewis.
The maintenance building is special as well says Lewis “It’s not just a building, it’s a customized building at ice level that meets our specific needs. For our volunteer maintenance crew, it makes their life so much easier.”
The outdoor ice oval is a 400-metre skating facility made with natural ice. The oval is maintained by volunteers of the Outdoor Ice Oval Society of Prince George with the support of the City of Prince George.
Comments
I would be interested in the refrigerated ice oval if it also included an out door hockey rink as well. If it was under $2 million to put in place, then when compared to the $20 million for Kin 1 it would be good value for the community considering it would likely triple the days the out door rinks could be used, and would provide the security for hosting events at the ice oval in the future.
In previous years I would have said no way to refrigeration units for the ice oval. That was when PG had a community ice rink in every neighborhood. Now PG has maybe a half dozen public out door rinks across the city and most all the old community one are no longer maintained due to new municipal regulations and insurance rules. Bureaucracy took over and we lost the community ice rinks, so maybe this would be a way of fixing that.
So without the community rinks to use, its hard to get a young kid the ice time to just learn to skate. Having the ice oval when its available, if its cold enough, is great for public skating and learning to skate IMO. I think long term it would increase the user-ship of all the other rinks, and thus make them more viable too.
Several errors in your comments Eagle. Kin 1 cost $16 million, and included heavy rennovations to kin 2 and the upper lounge area. Local community rinks are not disappearing because of regulations or bueauracracy, it’s because people simply don’t volunteer to make them any more…in fact the city provides free training for anyone wanting to make an outdoor rink. And you’re also making the classic mistake when speculating on costs of new Infrastucture. Instead of guessing what the construction costs are (and I can assure you it would be more like 5 or 6 million to install refrigeration at the ice oval), you should look at costs over the next twenty or thirty years. For example, the millions it would cost to install refrigeration is only the FIRST payment. The real cost is something like an additional 30 or 40 million to operate, maintain, and repair over the years. The city has massive repairs to do at the coliseum, kin 3, and the CN Centre is now twenty years old and needs significant maintenance. Does our community really have the appetite to take on another huge tax load to extend the outdoor ice oval season for a few weeks?
Another waste of money. An outdoor venue is risky at the best of times , in this part of the world. Even if it’s cold enough, it’s either too cold, snowing, wet snow or windy. Indoor ice oval with a new Kin 4, that would have been something to rally around. Inject money into an outdoor application? Makes no sense at all.
The ice oval gets a lot of hype, however I suspect if the truth were known this facility is used by a very small number of the general public.
As for the costs etc; I agree with Lenny, also on his other points in regards to outdoor rinks.
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