Memorial Centre repairs to impact figure skating too
Peterborough Figure Skating Club is already short of ice time for figure skaters
The Peterborough Figure Skating Club is already short of the ice it needs and worries how the closure of the Memorial Centre next fall would impact their season.
“It’s a big impact on us,” said PFSC president Tara Paul.
City council is debating whether to go ahead with a $3.5-million repair of the PMC floor that would shut the arena down from June 1 to Nov. 1 in 2019 or consider a smaller repair that would have less impact on users. City staff are pushing for the bigger repair while the Peterborough Century 21 Lakers are trying to convince council to look at the alternative option.
Paul said the ice they get is already insufficient to meet demand and the club often loses ice-time to shows and special events at the PMC. It gets nine hours for figure skaters — three hours each Monday, Wednesday and Friday — and three for synchronized skaters on Sunday night. This season they’ve often lost hours to shows and the replacement ice offered by the city at other arenas is often turned down because it’s not at suitable times for the club.
The PFSC starts its season in August at the Evinrude Centre and it appears there will be no available ice there next summer.
“In the last arena users meeting everyone was informed there would likely not be any ice in the summer, let alone be told you can’t start your programs in September or October,” Paul said.
All users were asked to accommodate each other by requesting less ice-time next fall, she said.
“Now we’re struggling with what do we ask for and how much will we be able to offset some of our programs. If we do get ice do we give it to our older skaters, who are skating 10 to 12 months a year, and delay our younger programs where we always have a waiting list? That delay means there will be 50 or 60 kids who will not get to skate in the fall.”
Using county arenas is not much of an option for the PFSC, she said, because most of them offer their own CanSkate programs.
“We can’t go to Millbrook or Otonabee or Lakefield. They all have their own programs and we don’t want to overstep,” she said. There is another issue as well. “It’s hard for us to move to another arena because with the CanSkate program we have a lot of props that go with it. Things we set up on the ice to make the lanes for the children,” she said.
The nine hours a week they currently get is inadequate but they have no choice due to the lack of available ice already in the city. “We’ve asked numerous times for the last five years for extra ice and we’re just not able to get it,” Paul said.
“They try to give us ice when they can but you have to co-ordinate all your coaches and parents. It’s hard for parents to get their kids there when you have to switch ice or change programs, let alone coaches who have outside jobs as well. I know clubs in Durham have ice five to six days a week. A lot of our competitive skaters have been going to Scarborough and Whitby to get more ice to become more competitive.”
The delay now in starting a proposed twin-pad at Trent University is discouraging to all users, she said, knowing that Northcrest Arena is on borrowed time.
“We all knew this was going to come to a head delaying all these arenas and not jumping on the opportunities when they were being given. It’s frustrating for everyone involved,” Paul said.
“We were told at the last meeting they’re going to do what they can to maintain Northcrest but if there is a large fix they’re not sure if they can afford that.”