Imagine the Paddle River frozen in winter. Along the banks are bonfires, benches, picnic areas, hot drinks and snacks. Mingled with music are sounds of families enjoying themselves.
And on the ice are skaters young and old, gliding as far as the eye can see. Gliding along a quarter-of-a-mile stretch of river, past beautiful scenery.
It could be Barrhead’s equivalent of Ottawa’s Rideau Canal, creating a niche attraction to boost the town’s appeal.
A pipe dream? Well, perhaps. But Barrhead Town councillor Don Smith still believes it is an idea well worth exploring.
“We all have to dream a little bit,” he said. “That’s not to say it can’t be done. A lot of people have a vision and bring it to reality.
“You always have to be thinking ahead and asking ‘what can we do to make this community better? I think this would be great.”
“It’s kind of unique to have a river in our community,” he added. “It has a natural landscape, you could be skating down the river, down by the golf course, where the boardwalk is. It would be fantastic for family outings.”
Smith envisaged a skating area stretching from Highway 33 for about a quarter of a mile.
“It’s got to be much bigger than the outside rink, otherwise there would be no point,” he said.
Smith knows many issues need to examined before his vision can become a viable proposal. These include legality, safety, ice thickness, surface flooding, river maintenance, manpower and costs.
He added Barrhead may be able to learn from the experience of the City of Edmonton, where the Hawrelak River is used for skating.
At a Barrhead Town Council meeting last month, Smith asked Chief Administrative Officer Martin Taylor to look into the feasibility of the idea.
“The river is in very close proximity to our community and I think it would get used a lot,” Smith told Town council.
Smith drew a comparison with the Rideau skateway, which is 7.8 kilometres long and begins just steps from Canada’s Parliament Buildings.
“It would be much smaller, much shorter,” he laughed.
“It sounds like a great idea, so don’t let it go by the wayside.” said Coun. Roy Ulmer.
Last Wednesday, Smith described his dream in further detail, while highlighting potential challenges.
An obvious one was the volume of water in the Paddle River. Once the spring runoff is complete, there is not much water movement.
“It’s not too deep,” said Smith. “So that may be the challenge in the fall. How low is the water level and how much debris or rocks are showing?”
Smith said Fisheries and Oceans would have to be consulted about the legality of a skating rink.
If it was approved, then there were two possible methods to raise water levels: releasing more water from the dam or trucking it in.
Flooding the surface to maintain the rink was another issue.
“In the Rideau Canal they drill holes in the ice so water comes up and floods the surface,” said Smith. “They use scrapers or truck equipment to scrape the surface.
“How would we do that? Obviously all this comes with a cost. Do you look to the community for sponsorship?
“Another challenge is it only open on weekends? Do you maintain it all week? All these things come at a cost.”
Smith said skating would be dependent on the weather and only possible during a small window, three months or less.
Typically the Rideau skateway opens in January and in February many activities take place on the frozen canal during Winterlude.
“If the community in Barrhead embraced the idea you might have corporate sponsorship for help in such things as putting up benches,” Smith said. “People here are pretty good at getting behind something.
“The skating would be free, of course. It would be no different from people using parks. It would be something good for the health and wellness of our community.”
Smith raised the prospect of night skating.
“We would have to have the river lit up, but can you imagine how beautiful it would be?” he said.
