With council’s enthusiastic support, Sicamous could be lacing up for a new outdoor activity next winter.
The Sicamous Eagles are applying for the Armstrong Regional Cooperative’s Co-op Community Spaces funding in order to build an outdoor skating rink, and requested a letter of support at the Feb. 28 meeting.
Operations manager Darrell Symbaluk explained that the rink would be 40 by 80 feet, and have cooling equipment to ensure the ice condition would be good in temperatures up to 10 degrees, allowing the rink to open earlier in the fall and run later into spring.
“There would be a power component that we’ve already engaged BC Hydro to come and look at and prepare a preliminary design for us to bring some power in,” Symbaluk explained. “We would have to do a chiller unit and, depending on what variety we go with, we’d be looking at a couple different quotes.”
The rink would be centrally located near the small green space by the curling rink, which provides plenty of parking and is close to Parkview Elementary School, with the draft letter stating that it “would be a wonderful addition to Finlayson Park which includes a playground, skateboard park, outdoor exercise equipment, washrooms and a walking path.”
“I love this idea,” Coun. Siobhan Rich stated, adding that her family has been going to the outdoor arena in Silver Creek and that this “would be amazing for our community.”
The project had originally been pitched to council for support last year, but it ran into a timing issue on the funding.
“Council actually wrote this letter last year,” deputy corporate officer Sarah Kyllo explained. “Unfortunately there was a mishap with when the application was due, so they weren’t able to apply for the funding.”
This year, however, the Eagles managed to get the letter of support prior to the March 1 deadline for Community Spaces, which supports local projects that meet the criteria with funding between $25,000 and $150,000.
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