Councillor
John Parker is getting ever closer to his dream of getting another rink in
Leaside Gardens.
After years of effort, both as a councilor and, before that, as a board member at Leaside Gardens, Parker has been trying to add ice capacity to one of the city's oldest ice facilities, built in 1951. And then, in June, a donor stepped forward anonymously with $525,000 to finance the planning for such an expansion.
"It supports three main community groups," Parker says, "the
Leaside Hockey Association, the
Leaside Girls Hockey Associationnd the
Leaside Skating Club. Those three clubs consume pretty much every nanosecond of prime time ice at the rink. Now those clubs have outgrown it and are leasing extra time on other rinks at prime rates." Money that could Parker believes, could be going to Leaside.
The city has already bought the land the rink will eventually occupy, last February from the province for $1.2 million. The next two interwoven steps are to secure financing, which Parker estimates will exceed $10 million, and develop a plan. "But we're not going to know the costs until we have plans, and we're not going to have plans until we have a budget set aside," Parker says, "so we've been wrestling with that for a year or so."
The donation, approved by city council this past month, may prove to be the ice-breaker. At least, that's what Parker's hoping.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: John Parker
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