Skip to content

Tiny to open three skating rinks for residents this season

Township to invest in two travelling monitors as well as ambassadors to ensure dedicated skating times are not taken over by hockey players
Ice Skates
Stock image.

Tiny residents can start sharpening their skates for the season as council gives its blessing to opening three public rinks.

At its recent meeting, council also gave staff the nod to reach out to volunteers to give the go-ahead to flood the Toanche rink, which will be the fourth rink available to residents.

To follow guidelines provided by the health unit, council also agreed to hiring two travelling rink monitors and two roving ambassadors to supervise skating times at the Lafontaine, Wyevale and Perkinsfield rinks. Rink monitoring will not be provided at the Toanche rink. This is the same level of service that has been delivered from 2014 to 2019.

Deputy Mayor Steffen Walma said he likes having all four rinks open this year.

"Having that option available is good, not just for Tiny but all kids in the area," he said. "If we don't do monitors at the rinks, have we ever had any issues with hockey versus just regular skating?

Bonita Desroches, director of recreation, said the reason supervisors were needed was because in the past there's always been conflict between those coming if for free skate and those coming in to play shinny.

To resolve this issue, she said, the township hired monitors to be present during skating hours only.

Coun. Cindy Hastings agreed: "You really do need the monitors there just to deal with the skaters and shinny. I expect since a lot of organized sports are scaling back, you're going to see a lot more interest in public skating."

However, Desroches said, with the option approved by council, there will be no strict contact tracing.

For that, staff had come up with a suggestion to hire permanent rink monitors stationed at the three public rinks to supervise throughout the day. This will give them the opportunity to conduct simultaneous check-ins at each location using an iPad and Envoy (realtime COVID contact tracing and screening software), ensuring that health unit protocols are followed.

However, Walma had another idea.

"I think if we can encourage people to download the COVID-alert app, we can provide a service without breaking the bank and with limited monitoring," he said.

 A final decision will be made by council after staff has further consulted with the health unit. 


Comments

Verified reader

If you would like to apply to become a verified commenter, please fill out this form.




Mehreen Shahid

About the Author: Mehreen Shahid

Mehreen Shahid covers municipal issues in Cambridge
Read more