A rendering of the proposed outdoor ice rink at Riverside Park.
Image Credit: City of Kamloops
October 06, 2020 - 6:30 PM
The City of Kamloops is still hoping to revitalize Riverside Park with the addition of an outdoor skating rink.
After a previous grant was rejected, the City has re-applied for a grant to fund the project and Darren Crundwell, capital projects manager, said it could be a year before they receive a response. Pending the grant's approval, Riverside Park could see the outdoor ice rink in 2022.
The project would upgrade the spray park and transform it into an outdoor skating rink in the colder months. The existing spray park is nearly 30 years old and staff estimate it will need to be replaced within the next five years, according to a City report.
READ MORE: Riverside Park to be home of Kamloops outdoor skating rink
“It needs to be replaced anyway and there’s a huge shortage of leisure ice… we also have a few community groups who have been pushing hard (for this),” Crundwell said.
The current washroom and the storage building would be repurposed to include new washrooms and change rooms, an ice plant and storage for operating equipment including a Zamboni.
The size of the outdoor rink would be about the same footprint as the current spray park which is roughly the size of the NHL hockey rink (200 feet by 85 feet).
The Riverside Park Recreation and Revitalization Project, which includes the ice rink and other upgrades to the park, is estimated to cost $5.7 million. The City's share of the project would be around $1.5 million.
The ice rink would cost approximately $120,000 a year to operate, assuming there is a 16-week operating period for the rink.
As only 27 per cent of the project, the water park replacement, will be included in the City's budget, there would not be sufficient funding for the entire project to proceed without the grant.
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