Fort Frances council approves summer ice at Memorial Sports Centre
Over the last few months a call has gone out to various user groups at the Memorial Sports Complex to gauge interest in using ice at Ice For Kids Arena (IFK) over the summer months. After reaching 81 per cent of the set target, Fort Frances Town Council voted in favour of maintaining the ice through July and August.
Recreation and Culture Manager Nathan Young says the idea of keeping the ice through the summer sprung out of the town’s recently created strategic plan.
“Council passed their strategic plan back in October, and a part of their strategic plan was to find initiatives for encouraging health, community engagement and quality of life as one of their priorities specific to more recreation opportunities for residents and visitors into the town,” Young said. “That, coupled with some user groups that had approached us asking for summer availability of ice so that their athletes can continue to train in the offseason sort of sparked the idea of us going into a summer ice pilot project.”
The initial caveat from council was that they needed to sell 291 hours of ice time in order to insure that the costs of running the rink were recovered.
“We did get 80 per cent towards our target by the time we brought this back to council last week, and council decided that we had done enough work moving forward into the project for us to launch the pilot project starting July 8 through to August 31 in the IFK,” Young said. “Then we bring a report back in the fall to update on how the project went so we can make decisions to see if this is going to be an every summer opportunity or if it's not feasible for the town to continue.”
The ice will be taken out for required annual maintenance in the middle of May, which will allow for the Fort Frances High School Graduation to take place in the arena as well as other scheduled events, then the ice will be put back for the beginning of the summer schedule. Several groups have purchased ice in the two hour time slots that were sold in the initial ice time offering.
“The initial groups that came through, included a local skating club, the Fort Frances Lakers group, as well as a hockey Training Club through Wayne Strachan. We then saw the Muskie teams come and rent some ice,” Young said. “And then we also had Big Grassy (First Nation) and Weechi-it-te-win (Family Services) that came through and purchased ice to sponsor for free skates for the youth in the community over the summer as well.”
There were also some inquiries regarding shorter ice rentals but at that time the pilot was being run on the basis of two hour ice rentals but after a discussion with council on Monday they were given permission to offer one hour ice rentals for birthday parties and the like.
“We had a lot of inquiries about birthday parties and one hour private bookings for family events,” Young said. “So we brought the recommendation to council to change from a two hour minimum to allow for one hour bookings which has increased our sales since Monday night's council meeting. So the town will be putting on some $3 shinneys and $3 public skates but we also have some groups that came in and are doing sponsored shinny and public skates the same way that they did during spring break, which had a big uptick in those free programs as well.”
With the one hour bookings, like a swimming party, patrons have the opportunity to rent a conference room to do cake and presents in, you also get access to dressing rooms for the ice rental.
The town requires all users to have a signed waiver on file to go on the ice and they do ask that skaters wear helmets.
Anyone interested in renting ice at the IFK can contact the Memorial Sports Centre at 807-274-4561.
Allan Bradbury, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Fort Frances Times
