Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

RIVERSIDE PARK REVITALIZATION

Kamloops council puts the kibosh on outdoor rink at Riverside Park

Sep 29, 2021 | 4:58 PM

KAMLOOPS — The City of Kamloops is scaling down a planned revitalization project for Riverside Park.

The city application for grant funding to the tune of $4.3 million was not successful. As a result, council will put the outdoor skating rink on the shelf, proceeding with the spray park and bathroom facility replacements. According to councillor Mike O’Reilly, the revitalization is long overdue.

“COVID obviously had an impact on our finances, so we decided to take a middle-of-the-road approach,” O’Reilly explains. “The upgrade in replacing the water park that’s been there almost 25 years now – it’s at the end of its life. That’s an infrastructure problem that needed to be fixed regardless. As well as the washrooms and change rooms that are there. That’s a building that goes back to 1960.”

The plan the city decided in favour of will cost about $3.25 million total, though $1.75 million is already set aside in the City’s budget, and will include an option to build an outdoor ice surface at Riverside Park down the road.

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Nancy Bepple, a member of the Kamloops Outdoor Skating Association, said while she understands the decision, she’s disappointed.

“We believe that there should be a refrigerated outdoor rink in Kamloops,” Bepple says. “We know that people love outdoor skating. I guess [council] took a cautious, small step in that direction with their plan. But we really hope they see that skating is not just for hockey, it’s not just for figure skating and organized sports. Skating is for everybody, and people like to be outside in the wintertime.”