More outdoor rinks to come to Chestermere next winter

Ideas for bringing more outdoor skating rinks to Chestermere was brought before city council during the March 19 meeting.
“What we’re trying to do is look at opportunities for other rinks in different locations in the city,” said Kathy Russell Parks and Recreation Manager with the city.
The search for additional skating options comes after council reaffirmed the prohibition on skating on storm ponds in the city based on the dangers presented by the storm ponds.
In her presentation to council on possible ice rinks, Russell said that they have looked at different places to put up rinks including in East Chestermere, Camp Chestermere, Saint Gabriel, and Prairie Waters, but Camp Chestermere is their first choice.
“We want to discourage people from skating on the storm ponds because of safety concerns,” she said.
Russell said she isn’t sure whether these new rinks will be built on a hard surface or not, and city staff will have to bring back a proposal to council with a recommendation as part of the upcoming budget review.
A temporary rink with no boards would cost the city around $3000 a year to maintain.
The addition of boards could substantially increase the cost. Depending on the materials used the cost would increase to a range between $5000 to $10,000 to pay for the boards.
Russell thinks that a hard surface rink would be a benefit for Chestermere due to the ability to use it 52 weeks of the year.
In being more permanent, the rink would accommodate different sports.
“By building something that’s more permanent we can accommodate a number of different types of sports,” she said.
Although it would depend on what they build the idea is to maximize participation and access to the public.
“You’ve got your one-time capital cost, which is for your materials, then there’s the annual ongoing cost which is for maintaining a rink,” said Russell.
They plan to bring more rinks into either East Chestermere or West Chestermere.
“There are already rinks on the lake, and so it would be good to have rinks dispersed throughout the community,” she said.
In order to do this, they have to look at and evaluate where a good place to have a rink would be.
To build a rink, they need to find a level surface that is convenient to access for the public Russell said.
If they get approval to go ahead and work on a design and budget for the rink they will be consultations with the community.
Russell said they would be asking what kind of hard surface the community wants, but she wants to get a gauge of interest in the community.
“We’ll want to get a thermometer reading of interest,” she said.
Depending on if the rinks get approved in this years’ budget on April 4, city staff will be bringing forward a proposal to public engagement as well as a possible design later this year.
To get this implemented they would identify land and location for the surface, they would ask the community what kind of recreational amenity they would want.
After that, they would evaluate the feedback and an internal evaluation would be done and then they would have a draft design done.
Once they get that done they would get cost estimates and then they would go back to council and get it approved in a budget.
“It takes a bit of time,” said Russell.