Activate Penticton says hockey and public skating "cannot coexist safely" at the city's only outdoor rink.

(DAN WALTON / iNFOnews.ca)

Hockey players refusing to follow the rules could risk having sticks banned for good at Penticton's only public outdoor skating rink.

Activate Penticton, the non-profit that manages the rink, said its volunteers have been met with "acts of defiance" when trying to get hockey players leave for public skating time.

"We've heard from folks who want to go skating with their children, but feel there's no safety when there's folks out there firing pucks around," Matt Hopkins, Activate Penticton vice-president, said.

The Canadian tradition of pond hockey is not so easy in Penticton, where the city has just one temperature-controlled ice sheet.

"We have this romantic idea of just stepping out there whenever you want," Hopkins said. "Unfortunately with ours, we do have to keep a bit of order to it."

Hockey was banned last winter because of similar issues, but Activate later changed its mind to allow hockey at specific times.

This year, hockey is restricted to scheduled times every morning. Skaters with sticks and pucks have been using the rink outside the booking times and outside rink hours. Activate Penticton said lights turn off at 9 p.m. but that hasn't stopped hockey players from getting on the ice for evening skates.

It's also up to Activate to enforce its rules. The city bylaw department told iNFOnews.ca it would not be enforcing ice rink rules, but they were getting calls for noise complaints.

“Hockey and public skating cannot safely coexist on our small outdoor rink. We have signage that makes this clear, but the rules are being blatantly ignored every day. We cannot go on like this, it’s not safe, it’s not fair on our volunteers and it goes against the community spirit the rink is intended to represent," Activate president Drew Barnes said in a news release.

Barnes said it's a "final plea" for hockey players to follow the rules before it's stripped from the rink entirely.

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