There seems to be a lot of discussion about town run outdoor rinks recently.
I’ve received a number of emails, calls etc from residents asking about them. Here’s a little rundown of what’s going on.
First off, we did have an outdoor rink at Rotary Park and due to warmer than normal winters the last few years, low usage and eventually costs we are not offering that service at this point. Going back a number of years, outdoor rinks were looked at but as we all should remember, the winters haven’t been as cold as they have and the outdoor rinks we did have went unused. Lots of people commenting “were in a pandemic” so it should be a “no brainer” when it comes to outdoor rinks.
One of the things I’d like to bring up is the the budget for 2020 was approved back in 2019 – pre pandemic so its not as simple as find the money somewhere and build them. Budgets are prepared ahead of time and a lot of what seems as we “should have known”, we didn’t know when preparing and approving the budgets. All municipalities are not equal and Milton is a perfect example of that seeing how we’ve been growing rapidly, and quite frankly, haven’t been keeping up with staffing as I feel we should have…but that’s another story.
For whatever reason our council has an issue with staffing that should and will be addressed as we move forward. Some on council feel that increasing staff levels is increasing bureaucracy and its been difficult over the last few years of growth to make improvements. That aside, our staffing levels aren’t where they should be an tough decisions had to be made to ensure tax increases not get out of hand. Now as I like to say…what’s next! Myself along with a number of members of council have approached staff to consider some options going forward for the next budget. There are some municipalities who run their own outdoor rinks, have money set aside and staff set aside to operate them.
Others have what I like to consider, neighbourhood sponsored outdoor rinks. These are where a community applies to have an outdoor rink in a park area and the town will install but neighbourhood residents will monitor and maintain them during the winter season.
Going forward staff is working on an action plan to have something available for next season. This doesn’t address the issues we have now where a) the weather has been ideal b) lockdown situation and people risking their lives skating on stormwater management ponds that were NOT designed for skating. These issues are going to be addressed as we prepare the next years budget. 2021 budget was a difficult one for many municipalities, Milton especially. We came out of it a lot better than others did and we’re very proud of the work our staff and council direction provided in maintaining our finances. There will be more information as we move forward with that. Rest assure that you have been heard by me and many other council members and this will be made a priority.
Speaking about safety regarding storm water ponds. Many people have different opinions on why these are built in our new subdivisions. Some think they are there to provide naturalized space for birds, fish and other animals. Others believe they are there for environmental purposes. Storm water ponds are constructed to prevent flooding. They are there to catch the water run off from roads and streams etc. and prevent basement from being flooded. Period. They are not there for winter activities like skating and walking on them. They are not there for spring and summer activities like fishing and swimming.
They serve the purpose of preventing flooding. They are not designed or maintained to have a safe skating surface or sledding during the winter. They contain road salt, silt and dirt from road and are not conducive for a good skating or stable surface. That’s why we have signs all around these ponds saying no swimming/no skating/no walking all around them. Last December we tragically lost the life of a young child who was on that ice. The levels are not uniform throughout the pond and that can cause some portions of the ice to be much thinner and inconsistent and walking/skating/sledding on the ice can cause it to break. We do not want to have another tragedy like this again which is why you are seeing police and bylaw officers monitor them and remind people of the rules set in place for safety.
Thanks for all your input and we look forward to hearing from residents as we build some options for next season. Until then, lets do what we can this year to help people get outdoors and exercise as much as possible, while doing it as safely as possible.
Until then, be safe everyone!