The short answer is “No”, to the question of whether City of Timmins-operated outdoor rinks will be open before your kids go back to school on Monday.
City clerk Steph Palmateer says recent warm weather put operations back to Square 1, with the little ice there melting back to the gravel. Two inches is standard to allow skating.
“Unlike our indoor facilities where you can get away with less ice,” Palmateer observes, “(with) gravel and rocks and things like that, we need to make sure that people don’t trip and hurt themselves on those kinds of obstructions.”
Palmateer is hopeful that the outdoor rinks will be open next weekend. In the meantime, he repeats the request to stay off the rinks until there’s enough ice to officially open them.
“I understand that the public wants to get on these facilities sooner rather than late,” he says. “They see a bit of ice out there and they get out there skating on them, but unfortunately that just keeps setting us back at the same time.”
The Hollinger Park skate path is one of those rinks you’re being asked to avoid. So are the rinks at Roy Nicholson Park and behind the Mountjoy Arena.