The Prince George Ice Oval Society is renewing their push to make the Oval a year round facility.
They’re doing this through their ‘Chill the Oval’ campaign, with the goal of providing refrigeration with a concrete surface.
“Right now it’s a natural ice oval, and when we’re experiencing weather like we have this week, it makes it really difficult for us to stay open for public skating,” said Kathy Lewis, Ice Oval Society President.
“It’s just unsafe to skate and of course we lose our ice. It’s also hard on our volunteers who have to rebuild the ice every time that happens. It also prevents us from being able to host competitions.”
Lewis said the Oval loses typically a month’s worth of skating days due to mid-season thaws during the winter.
“The other thing is we could both ice and have ice later in the season,” she explained.
“The two shoulder seasons could be extended quite a lot if we had the refrigeration, I think we could have another between 30 and 60 days of skating at least.”
According to Lewis, the approximate cost for refrigeration with a concrete surface would be between $5 million and $6 million.
She added a sand surface could be cheaper, but concrete would also allow for year-round use.
“For things like in-line skating, kids learning how to ride a bike where they don’t have to be in traffic,” Lewis explained.
Lewis added she doesn’t have a recent update on the funds raised, but thinks there is about $70,000 raised so far.
She said the campaign stalled over the pandemic, but now they have a plan, and a few people who are interested in helping the campaign move along.
More information about the Chill the Oval campaign can be found here.