SCOTT STANFIELD Citizen staff
The Outdoor Ice Oval Society is in need of water and weather - cold weather.
When it happens, the public will be gliding around a new ice oval west of the Kin Centres.
"It's basically done," society president Anne Pousette said. "The fencing is done, the excavation is finished, it's grated, lights are up. It looks really good."
The new public rink is contained by a 4 1/2-metre berm, which was not part of the old rink that accommodated skaters the past eight years at Exhibition Park. The new facility will also offer a skating surface more level than the previous facility, which at times contained weeds and floating wood chips.
The society anticipates city crews will install a water line from the Kin Centres to the oval this week.
When the first blades make contact with the new surface, it will mark the completion of the first phase of the society's plan for a new outdoor public skating facility in Prince George.
The proposed second -- and more costly -- phase involves the installation of a 400-metre concrete oval suitable for both ice skating and in-line skating. The society hopes project funding will come from the federal and provincial governments, as well as other sources.
The group is also looking at a third phase to develop the inside of the oval for hockey and in-line skating. In the meantime, however, the facility will be restricted to natural ice.
"I think that by after Christmas, once we get through a few things, we'll be actively starting to work on some of the things that need to take place to get that next phase going," Pousette said. "Now we can focus on that. We've got one big chunk done. The actual cost of doing this part of it in the original engineering plan was quite a few hundred thousand dollars, so we've actually saved a bunch of money by getting this done now."
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