Bluffs ice rink needs a level playing field
When most of us are snuggling in bed on a cold winter night, Billy Wilson is flooding the skating rink he built for kids in his neighbourhood.
Frustrated by an absence of outdoor skating in his area, Wilson talked the city into allowing him to build a rink at Elizabeth Simcoe Park half a dozen years ago. He’s been working on improving it since.
Without his efforts, children in his Scarborough Bluffs community would have nowhere to skate, other than an indoor arena several kilometres away, too far away to get there by walking.
But every time he sees the ice filled with happy kids — not as often as he’d like, given the mild winter — all the late nights and fingers frozen stiff from cold water are worth it.
“You see them out here as little guys, falling down and learning to skate, but within a couple years they’re flying around the ice,” said Wilson, adding it’s gratifying to know his efforts contributed to their progress.
The rink is next to the Elizabeth Simcoe Jr. Public School, on Sylvan Ave., and is built each autumn and maintained over the winter by Wilson and his neighbour, Craig Manuel.
Aside from the actual work, they hustled a discount on tarps and materials needed to build it from the Home Depot at Eglinton Ave. and McCowan Rd., along with the money to pay for it.
“When you’re out here at 10:30 at night, you hope the kids appreciate it, and we know they do,” Manuel said.
As long as it’s cold enough to freeze the ice, the rink is in constant use. Kids from the school are on it at recess and after class, while older kids arrive at night and point their car headlights at it, so they can play shinny.
But one side of the ice is higher than the other, due to levelling issues with the ground on which it is built. The result is a heaped-up rough patch of ice on one side, which reduces the skating surface.
The rink was relocated to a new patch of ground last fall, after a splash pad was built in the park. The city installed a water faucet to make flooding it easier, said Wilson, but the levelling issue has yet to be addressed.
Wilson said he appreciates the city’s cooperation, but if it could find a way to level the ground under the rink for next year, he’d be an even happier guy. Status: We had a talk with Paul Ainslie (Ward 43, Scarborough East), the local city councillor, who filled us in on some background. Ainslie said he met with parks staff last week about the levelling issue. They discussed using a scraper blade to level the ground, but Ainslie said they had concerns about drainage problems when the ice melts. Parks staff said it could be evened up with sand, which will allow the water to drain naturally, said Ainslie, adding he’ll make sure it’s done next fall. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/ yourtoronto/the_fixer or call us at 416-8694823 or email jlakey@thestar.ca. To read our blog, go to thestar.com/news/the_fixer. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.