(Submitted/ Ellen MacNeill)

By Nigel Maxwell

Save the rink

Fundraising effort launched to restore community rink

Sep 21, 2023 | 12:00 PM

A popular hub for pick-up games in the winter is showing its age but efforts are underway to provide the outdoor rink north of Prince Albert with a new lease on life.

The Peter Pond ice rink, the last remaining of its kind in the Rural Municipality of Buckland, is in need of new boards and the cost to install the planned puck board is roughly $17,000 with labour. RM of Buckland Reeve Don Fyrk told paNOW council has given money annually to the rink committee for upkeep and maintenance but explained the cost of this project was just too much.

“We’d love to do it but at the same time we have to be responsible,” he said.

So what council has agreed to do is match fundraising efforts up to $10,000. Ellen MacNeill is one of two board members on the rink committee and explained the structure was initially built over 50 years ago, and the boards are rotting.

“We’ve been nursing it for years and we are just replacing the rotten boards with new boards, but we are just using treated wood and we are not even painting it so it’s looking pretty shabby these days,” she said. “It’s getting to a point where we need help to save this structure.”

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(Submitted/ Ellen MacNeill)

Thanking the RM council for their support, and acknowledging the local community members who have donated lumber, MacNeill said there is a need for more volunteers to come help out.

“We clear the ice, we put the ice in, we do all that work and we aren’t even using the rink,” she said.

MacNeill added that there are a lot of people still using the rink, but the majority come from outside the area.

“Frankly after 22 years, I’m getting to the point where I wanna retire off this board and let the younger crowd kinda take over.”

Anyone wishing to help out with fundraising is encouraged to contact the RM office.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @nigelmaxwell