The good ol’ hockey game will continue in Bragg Creek after a proposal to remove the outdoor rink in the hamlet in favour of a family skating surface has been scrapped.
The Bragg Creek Community Association planned to replace the rink next to the Bragg Creek Community Centre with a recreational skating surface. The proposal was part of a project to replace a playground damaged in the 2013 flood and build an outdoor plaza near the centre.
The association will now leave the rink in place after residents spoke out against the plan.
“For the next few years we will keep the rink where it is,” said association president Mike Medwid.
He said it still plans to build a small family skating area near the centre.
“It’s more so you can have a family skating area and have some Christmas lights on trees,” said Medwid.
The outdoor rink was used by Bragg Creek Minor Hockey until about two years ago when teams moved to Redwood Meadows. Medwid said the rink at Redwood Meadows is better suited for minor hockey because it has a Zamboni.
He said the association intended to replace the outdoor rink.
Medwid said the association doesn’t have any funds to make any changes or improvements to the rink at this time, but its long-term goals is to move the rink near the tennis courts where there are more trees to shade the rink.
“The ice will last longer and we can get better ice time out of it,” he said.
Parking for the community centre is limited, he added, and part of the rink will be used for parking during summer months when it isn’t used for skating.
Medwid said a group of volunteers will look after the rink, maintain it, putting in the ice and regularly cleaning it.
“What we need, like any community, is volunteers to step up and do these kind of things and they’re going to take care of the rink and put in the ice and take care of it,” he said
Bragg Creek resident Terry Zimmel is part of that group.
He was concerned about the plans to get rid of the rink and is relieved it will remain open and that residents have teamed up to help maintain it.
“We’re going to be doing all that going forward, so it’s total win-win for everyone involved,” he said.
Zimmel said the rink has not been highly used in recent years, but feels it would be a shame to lose it. It is still used for shinny or pick-up hockey, he said.
Zimmel was concerned a family skating pond would be used less and said there are still a lot of different activities that can be held on the hockey rink over the winter months.
“A rink is multi-purpose, you can play hockey, you can still do family skates, you can have winter carnivals and all this kind of stuff,” he said.
He supports eventually moving the rink.
“That’s a good thing because actually, where it is now, is not the ideal location because in the spring time the sun comes down on one side of the boards and it melts a lot quicker,” he said.
“A move over to where they are recommending would be an absolutely positive thing.”
Zimmel said the rink has been a valuable asset for the community and having a hockey rink will be important for the community’s future as younger families move in.
“Even though it might be kind of quiet here for hockey players in the current time, you got to think five, 10, 25 years that as families come in, having a skating rink in a community in an outlying area where there aren’t a lot of activities for kids is going to be very strong selling feature,” he said.
