Citizens seek extension for closure date of Stellarton rink
Mayor says costs to stay open are too high
STELLARTON, N.S. — Stellarton Mayor Danny MacGillivray is open to ideas to save the Stellarton rink, but says the town cannot afford to keep it operational while waiting for those ideas to come to fruition. Over the last two years, the town has spent around $350,000 to keep the rink open and operational, and have determined that it cannot continue to do so because of looming expenses that would be needed to bring it up to code. The town says the rink, which was built in 1947, is also underutilized. The town went public with its findings in January and held a meeting for the public to explain why they believed it needs to close. Since that meeting, a group of citizens has formed a petition to try to convince the town to reconsider closing until February 2020. The petition — Stellarton Memorial Rink Closure – We Need More Time — calls for the rink to remain operational during that time period. “We respectfully request that the Town extends its time frame for deliberation on the rink’s potential closure to February 28th 2020 to allow time for interested and willing citizens to consider and bring forth a reasonable and affordable solution to the Town supporting the continued life and service of the Stellarton Memorial Rink,” the petition reads. “Further, it is our request that the rink building remain open for business during this period of extension to enable continued public enjoyment as well as operating income to offset normal costs of operations.” But that’s something MacGillivray says the town just can’t do. While for many in the town, the concerns about the rink are new, it’s something council has been grappling with for quite some time, he said. Last year, Deputy Mayor Bryan Knight made a recommendation that a dehumidifier be put in the rink, but before council agreed to spend $100,000 for the system, the it decided to do an aging building audit. That report was done by SNC-Lavalin and concluded that nearly $4.1 million in repairs would need to be done to keep it open. Just to keep it open for another year, as the group behind the petition wants, would require more than $1 million in repairs. “We can’t find any other solutions at this point of time,” MacGillivray said. He said they could agree to shuttering the building until 2020 to see if another option is available, but he doesn’t believe it would be in the taxpayers’ best interest to try to keep it operational. He also noted even prime-time hours the rink is open are underutilized. They’re currently open 60 hours a week, but 22 hours of that time is unused. In response to a request for information about their group, a spokesperson for the citizens who created the petition offered the following statement: “What we have is a group of citizens that genuinely wishes to contribute its efforts to assist the town in further weighing alternatives before a final deliberation is reached concerning a permanent closure. The group respectfully acknowledges and appreciates efforts on part of Mayor, council and staff thus far and is not interested in understating those efforts or pressuring the town to take on unnecessary and excessive debt.”