Heather Wright/The Independent

There isn’t a better location for the Camlachie mini-arena.

That’s the conclusion of a working group tasked by Plympton-Wyoming with coming up with an agreement between the Huron Shores Optimist and the town.

The Camlachie service club first floated the idea of an outdoor ice rink – at a cost of $400,000 – in July 2021. Last year, the club laid out its formal and much larger $1.6 million plan including a 60 by 120 refrigerated concrete slab and office, changing rooms, a washroom facility, a viewing area, a confection area and it will be covered during the months of December till March.

The club wants to put the facility between the ball diamonds, museum and the cenotaph. But some town councillors didn’t like the idea saying it shouldn’t be so close to the library and the cenotaph and five mature trees will have to be cut down.

So, the group looked at four other sites in Arnold Minielly Park, including two locations closer to the Camlachie Community Centre. In all four locations, the group found there would be issues, ranging from removing nine mature trees, to reducing the amount of parking in at the community centre, increased costs to get services to the new site and may be a problem when the town replaces the pumping station there
Councillor Mike Vasey says the location near the cenotaph and the library is really the best spot.

Vasey noted the Wyoming Cenotaph had a skate park behind it and it wasn’t an issue. “This is the best spot we found.”

Deputy Mayor Netty McEwen disagreed.

“It takes down five mature trees and jam it into a park that’s really quite beautiful right now,” she said.

“The Lakeshore Park has a great big field with nothing in it. It could be planted in there, and there’s drainage, there’s septic, there’s sewers all available very close, no trees to take down. I just wish you would sort of consider that.”

Staff said the Huron Shores Optimist who are raising the money to build the rink, want it in Minielly Park.

Councillor Kristen Rodrigues says the Minielly Park location could spur growth. “It actually could be a benefit to the library, the museum, because it brings more people in that area, in close proximity to it. Those two services have been struggling to get more people, so I think it’s a positive…This is a commercial hub, so I think putting it there would also enhance, ultimately, hopefully, more commercial interest in the area, which is desperately needed.”

Councillor Alex Boughen is fine with the location.

“The biggest challenge for me has always been figuring out the true capital costs of building this thing…we got to figure out how much it will cost and our financing and all that. And my understanding is we need the location to go any further.”

While council agreed to a potential location, it is not considered the final approval of the project, said CAO Adam Sobanski in a report to council.