CORNWALL – A victim of city budget cuts, it seems not as many Cornwall volunteers are ready to step up to the blue line to offer outdoor skating rinks.
Parks Supervisor Scott Porter told Cornwall Newswatch, at this point, his department is building five rinks for winter. They are at Dover Park, Grant Park, Memorial Park, Menard Park and Optimist Park.
“Each one of these parks has dedicated volunteers that will be maintaining these rinks by shovelling snow off the ice and flooding the rinks,” Porter said.
Last year, there were 13 locations.
The parks and landscaping department is responsible for building the rinks, putting in the plastic liner and doing the initial flooding.
The move in February to a solely based volunteer maintenance system was meant to save $30,000 in this year’s Cornwall budget.
Meantime, the city put out an appeal Friday. There is still time before the ground freezes to possibly have a rink in your location. Call Lorne Taillon at 613-938-9898 for more information.