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Penticton councillor casts doubt on need for 4 ice rinks

Councillor Frank Regehr wants the city to review the usage and rental costs of rinks in the city
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Memorial Arena is aged out of its service is deemed too old to keep. (Brennan Phillips Western News)

Penticton city councillor Frank Regehr wants another review before any decision is made on the fate of McLaren and Memorial Arenas.

The city’s recent asset and amenity management project recommended a twin-rink arena be built and the older McLaren and Memorial be demolished, in line with the recommendations made by the Penticton Arena Task Force in 2017.

The 2017 recommendation, had initially been accepted and the council at the time had supported looking into the financial and funding analysis for a new twin-rink arena before that plan went dormant.

Regehr wants the recommendations to be updated, on the basis of misinformation he claims was used as the foundation to the 2017 presentation.

In a notice of motion that was accepted by council on Feb. 1, and will return for discussion on Feb. 15, Regehr listed 11 points that he felt need a better review, given his time as a member of the Arena Task Force.

READ MORE: Penticton’s Memorial Arena deemed too old to keep, says consultant

In particular, he has taken issue with how the city’s arenas were portrayed as being incredibly busy based on information the task force provided at the time when more recent data now shows that the usage of the arena’s ice rinks only reached half of the available prime rental times.

The notice of motion ends by calling for more that needs to be done, including community consultation, before moving forward with building a new arena.

To report a typo, email: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com.

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Brennan Phillips

About the Author: Brennan Phillips

Brennan was raised in the Okanagan and is thankful every day that he gets to live and work in one of the most beautiful places in Canada.
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