Ice Oval Society States its Case

Monday, May 29, 2006 08:48 PM

Plan for Ice oval shows new location, plus, small red building to the right would be service building.

The Prince George Outdoor Ice Oval Society says its project, to be located west of the existing Kin Buildings, would cost $7.6 million dollars. Another $100 thousand a year would be placed in a fund to handle any major repairs or maintenance in the coming years.

The Ice Oval Society told Prince George Council that it expects revenue from the facility to hit $368 thousand dollars in its first year of operations, while operating costs are expected to be in the $342 thousand dollar range.

The request before Council was for the gravel extracted from the site. The Society says gravel sales would help the Society generate funds which they hoped would be matched with “Live Site” Olympic funding from the Provincial Government. That would allow the Society to move the existing natural ice Oval with a berm and fencing to a permanent site on the west side of the Kin Centres. The Society figures there is about $90 thousand dollars worth of gravel.

The Society also asked for an endorsement from Council so the Society could proceed with plans to raise funds through corporate donations, and government grants.

(photo at right shows existing oval)

The Society says the 400metre long track would be the only 400metre refridgerated oval west of Quebec. The Society says plans to make the track a year round facility would allow Prince George to attract in line skating competitions, provide training opportunities summer and winter, lengthen the speedskating season and provide another facility to improve the health and well being of the residents of Prince George.

The project is planned in three phases.

Phase One would see the oval relocated to a site west of the Kin Centre buildings
Phase Two Build the 400m track along with the refridgeration system and a support building (completion by fall of 2007)
Phase Three develop the “inner aspect” of the oval, eg: refridgerate entire infield, or build an Olympic sized hockey rink, or develop a 200 metre oval for inline speed skating within the 400 metre oval but this phase would require its own business case

Councilor Glen Scott says "Don't let anyone be negative, its a great project." Councilor Brian Skakun wanted more specifics about the financing, Society President Anne Pousette says she believes there is a climate for potential partnerships with the Federal and Provincial governments who seem to want to make a committment, but we wanted to have the City's support in principle before we go to those potential partners."

The Mayor says there is nothing in the five year capital plan to financially support the project, so there will have to be some creative ways to fund the project. "Gravel and getting the site (existing oval) moved from the one that is causing all the maintenance problems with debris and whatnot to what will be after this a permanent site with a berm and fencing as phase one, is quite doable without impacting the budget or anything."

Council has approved support in principle, and has asked to have the gravel issue referred to Administration with a report back to Council on June 26th.

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Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 08:48 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Chadermando on May 30 2006 8:48 AM

I don't like the location. I think along Ospika would be more community oriented and safe for night time skating.

Posted by: Palopu on May 30 2006 9:34 AM

Where are they going to come up with the people to support this Ice Oval. If you look at the Picture above you will see 4 people skating. I observed the present Ice Oval all winter and rarely would you see in excess of fifty people using this facility, and quite often during the week you would not see any. ((Much like Massey Stadium very few people using the facility)). It seems to me this is a large amount of money to be spent for very little usage. As I mentioned before the one in Quebec is next door to an area that has a population of 500,000 . If the one in Richmond is going to be turned into a multi use building after the olympics, this should give you a hint that their is no need or support for a year round ice oval facility in Richmond BC so why would we think we could have a fully utilized, successful one in Prince George with a population of 75000.????

In order to get the 45000 people using this facility from Nov to March. you would need to get 300 people out per day 7 days per week for 5 Months. (Highly unlikely)

Posted by: owl on May 30 2006 9:58 AM

If it is private enterprise and they are leasing the land from the city, so be it. Let them thrive or fail on their own accord without any guarantee that the city takes over any debts should they fail.

As to location, I very much agree that the existing location is better. Let's see the activity from the road. The proposed location is overflow as well as exhibitor parking for events at the exhibition park. That would get shoved further away form the area which they have to frequent, thus further walking distances. The plan to cluster all buildings in the centre with parking all around is a poor one from the point of view of access. Most people do not do all activities, nor all activities at the same time, thus there is very little reason to cluster the activity buildings.

Lugging sports equipment, I would think you would want to be as close to the building you will be using as possible.

Posted by: diplomat on May 30 2006 11:07 AM

>The Mayor says there is nothing in the five year capital plan to financially support the project, so there will have to be some creative ways to fund the project.<

The creative way will be to put off proper pothole repair and whole road rehabilitation (attention: Cook Crescent and Croft Road, a bus route!) year after year.

Nice going, indeed. Focus all your attention on new superfluous mega projects and ignore the real bread and butter issues.

I bet the Mayor has not travelled the area north of the Nechako in many years - otherwise he would be aware of the brutally inadequate streets and the lumpy random patchwork done this spring.

Team Torino and Team Beijing expenses would have gone a long ways in repairing the badly busted "pavement."

Common sense really is not as common a commodity as the name implies.

Posted by: owl on May 30 2006 8:09 PM

Well, the creative way will be to sell the City's gravel it appears. I wonder if the City will buy the gravel from itself? And who will pay for the normally "free" gravel? El Taxpayers? I just cannot figure the thinking of some people.

Next thing some organization will come to the city and ask them to sell some public land and give them the proceeds ...