Public skating offered at Meridian due to ice crunch
St. Catharines will offer public skating at Meridian Centre for the first time this Sunday in an effort to make up for some of the hours that have been slashed due to an arena being down.
Residents have lost 32 hours of afternoon public skating in the month of October alone after city staff had to re-jig arena schedules to accommodate all user groups who booked ice time.
“Unfortunately, we have lost a significant amount of afterschool public skating hours,” said Phil Cristi, director of parks, recreation and culture services.
“Whenever we have ice turned back (from user groups) we are doing our very best to convert them into public skating hours.”
The city announced it was closing Rex Stimers Arena’s ice pad in July after a review deemed its aged refrigeration system is a health and safety risk. A new system is estimated to cost $3 million.
The shuffling of sports teams and various programming to other arenas for the 2018-19 season meant every user group had to take fewer hours to be accommodated and public skating was reduced.
Cristi said after-school hours are prime time and those public skating hours are being hit the most critically.
He said the city is doing everything it can to find other public skating times at other arenas, but it may not be able to compensate for the hours lost.
Public skating was being offered 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Bill Burgoyne Arena and the Rex for a combined 32 hours in October before the schedules changed.
The city has managed to add several hours of public skating before 3 p.m. at Seymour-Hannah, but school age children won’t be able to take advantage of them.
Cristi said if there are any last-minute cancellations of ice time by user groups they will be used for public skating. As well, if city-run programs have low attendance they may be reviewed and converted to public skating. The city will also try to add hours on PA days.
Sunday public skating hours have been added to Meridian Centre beginning this weekend from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. More hours will be added on Sundays when there are no other events happening in the building. The cost to skate will be the same as
at other arenas.
“It’s a unique experience for sure to be able to skate on the ice with the IceDogs logo on there, it’s pretty exciting,” Cristi said. “We’re hoping people see it that way as well.”
St. Catharines began assessing the condition of city-owned arenas in early 2017 because of growing concerns with the age and condition of refrigeration plants. Soon after in October 2017, three people died at an arena in Fernie, B.C., because of an ammonia leak.
A city contractor recommended Rex Stimer’s existing refrigeration system and ice pad cease operating because of various and frequent component failures.
City council asked staff to undertake an arena strategy to determine the long-term trends and demand for ice. Cristi said they will hire a third-party consultant to do the study that will include what other municipalities are doing to deal with similar aging infrastructure.
In the meantime, the city is working with a third-party sports organization which may rent the dry arena.