Grey Highlands council has given preliminary approval to a request to re-locate Eugenia’s outdoor ice rink from a local park to the parking lot of a beach not too far away.
At its meeting on Jan. 15, council received a request from members of the Eugenia District Community Improvement Association requesting the local outdoor ice rink be built at the Lake Eugenia beach parking lot instead of the community park.
Association member Ron Barnett spoke to council about issues with the ice rink continuing at the park property where it has been located for several years.
“There is no water at the community park. We have to truck everything,” he said, noting that building the rink can get expensive at $200 a truckload for the water.
Barnett said, at the beach parking lot, water could be pumped from Lake Eugenia to build the rink. He also explained that the park location has a slope where the rink is built and when temperatures get mild the water runs off the site. The parking lot at the beach area is flatter.
“We feel it’s best to put it on the flat parking lot,” he said.
He also said there is no parking, other than on the street, at the community park. At the beach area, there is plenty of parking available.
Council was supportive of the request, but had to determine the best path forward to allow the change in venue to proceed immediately while temperatures are low and conditions are right for building an outdoor rink. Staff informed council that the association has a memorandum of understanding with the municipality for the rink to be located at the park, which would have to be amended for the move.
“I think we need to speed this up somehow,” said Mayor Paul McQueen. “I’m looking at my calendar and we don’t meet again for three weeks. Three weeks is critical for making a rink. In three weeks, there might be no snow.”
Members of council asked CAO Karen Govan if council could delegate responsibility for making the relocation of the ice happen immediately – should staff determine the beach area is a suitable and safe location. Govan said council could pass a resolution delegating its authority to make a decision on the matter to staff to allow the change to happen immediately.
Council voted unanimously to give staff the authority to move the project forward.
