By Chad Klassen

Outdoor skating rink moves forward, contingent on receiving provincial grant

Dec 19, 2018 | 3:49 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s long been talked about and now the dream of an outdoor skating rink in Kamloops has taken one stride closer to becoming a reality. City council has made the decision to include the new $3 million refrigerated rink as part of a recreation and revitalization project for Riverside Park.

“It’s going to be for leisure skating only. The goal is to use the same footprint as the water park is right now,” says Parks, Sustainability and Civic Facilities Manager Jeff Putnam. “So yes, it won’t be a traditional-shaped hockey rink. It’ll have more angles and flow.”

The outdoor skating ice would be built where the current water park stands. The proposal was included as part of the city’s application for a provincial recreation grant that would cover most of the rink and the other $3 million for upgrades to Riverside Park.

“If this grant application is successful, the city on a $6 million project would only need to contribute $1.8 million, so we’re really hopeful we’re going to find out if we’re successful later in 2019,” notes Putnam. 

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A $50,000 study was conducted by city staff, and after narrowing the list to five locations, including McDonald Park and McArthur Island, the city felt the location of the water park at Riverside Park was the best option.

The toys, which are aging, would be removed from the water park once construction begins. The city would purchase new toys that can be taken out before the area is flooded for the ice rink.

Members of the Kamloops Outdoor Skating Association, who were at council on Tuesday to garner support for the project, feel Riverside Park is a great spot.

“It’ll be fantastic,” says association member James Gordon, who showed up to council in a plaid shirt and with hockey skates. “I just have this vision in my head, if you’re standing on Lansdowne where the Sandman hotel is and you just look down towards the river, you’ll just see lights, you’ll maybe hear some music, you’ll see people moving around, and I think it’ll just a huge magnet.”

Council voted 5-4 in favour, with those opposed arguing the project is proceeding too quickly with few details. 

“We felt we didn’t have enough information, that this came at us suddenly,” says Councillor Dale Bass, who was one of four who voted against. “It was a grant that was announced in September and it’s now December and we were told this is what we have to do. There are no other options.”

Bass adds, “It’s not the rink itself. It was just the way it was handled and presented to us.”

The grant, which would provide $4.2 million of the $6 million cost, needs to be submitted by January 23. Putnam says a decision will come back to the city in May or June, and if successful construction of the rink and other upgrades would start in the summer of 2020.

The city says if the grant application is unsuccessful, it would not go ahead with the outdoor rink under this plan.