{"id":7228,"date":"2011-01-21T09:24:53","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T13:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingatlantic.ca\/?p=7228"},"modified":"2013-01-21T04:42:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T08:42:18","slug":"skating-around-the-important-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2011\/01\/21\/skating-around-the-important-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Skating Around the Important Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This article first appeared in The Watch<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

HALIFAX<\/strong> – <\/strong>\u201cIt\u2019s called vision. Someone has to have that vision for the future. Politicians should quickly see it and understand it. Somebody has to lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayor Peter Kelly\u2019s most recent vision consists of making the North Common skating oval a permanent fixture after the upcoming Canada Winter Games.<\/span><\/p>\n

The media has been awash with his support as it gains momentum alongside the Save The Oval campaign whose online petition, at press time, had garnered close to 7,000 signatures. <\/span><\/p>\n

The popularity of the oval is undeniable: a Jan. 6 staff report from City Hall reported that 600-800 people are \u201con it at a time on a regular basis.\u201d The rink is unique in its providing of a large, free, centrally-located space for skating. The public, then, is overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the oval to fill a long-existing gap in Halifax\u2019s recreational services.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI see what the public sees. The public is never wrong,\u201d says Kelly.<\/span><\/p>\n

But some critics say the public may be misinformed and Kelly\u2019s vision a case of the blind leading the blind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re hearing statements like this from the mayor: \u2018The people have spoken. You\u2019ll have an Oval.\u2019 In my experience with him as a politician, he\u2019s looked into things before he\u2019s spoken. In this case, he\u2019s stepped onto the ice without looking,\u201d says Lower Sackville Coun. Bob Harvey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey is one of a small group of citizens who believe the public\u2014and its visionary leader Kelly\u2014have advocated the permanency of the oval without a comprehensive evaluation of what this process would entail.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me to be a situation where it\u2019s clinically inappropriate to ask questions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Such questions begin with budgetary concerns. According to Harvey, as the oval was never intended to be permanent, financial discrepancies exist between the original, long-term plans for city skating rinks and the recent report promoting oval permanency.<\/span><\/p>\n

The oval was originally described in a Jun. 28, 2009 City Hall staff report as \u201can affordable solution within the Games budget, (but) it is highly unreliable and does not leave any legacy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The report estimated the annual operating costs of maintaining the rink to be approximately $40,000 to $110,000. Save The Oval web site manager Jeff White has touted this figure as a selling point. But the estimate was based on the running of similar facilities in cities with varying climates and an evaluation of maintenance costs specific to Halifax has not yet been established.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have asked staff to cost it out and come back with capital numbers in terms of long term capital investment and operational costs,\u201d says Kelly whose unfounded calculations of the oval\u2019s operating costs have ranged anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000 in interviews.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s possibilities for sponsorship and advertising are equally speculative. According to Kelly, potential investors have not been informed as to the permanency plans for the rink.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo decide now is to make a business case after the fact to fit what has been done,\u201d says Harvey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Any costs not covered by sponsorship and advertising would be \u201cadded to the general tax rate when the service is introduced,\u201d according to the Jan. 6 staff report\u2014a fact Kelly has made no mention of in interviews.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI’d still see benefit for our population even if it did raise taxes slightly,\u201d says White who, like Kelly, sees the oval\u2019s benefits to the community as outweighing any costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Harvey points to the oval\u2019s permanence as stepping\u2014or, rather, skating\u2014on the toes of other community projects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maintaining the rink would entail overriding of the HRM\u2019s Long Term Arena Strategy. Its January 2010 report stated a deficiency of outdoor skating space in the area to be reconciled by redeploying the oval\u2019s cooling equipment after the games. A subcommittee would determine these \u201cDestination Rinks\u201d based on need.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Kelly says the subcommittee will not perform its evaluation should the oval be made permanent, meaning a proper assessment of the HRM\u2019s ice needs will not occur.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jan. 6 staff report dismisses this loss by stating the smaller rinks could not \u201caccommodate the existing crowds without diminishing the recreational experience.\u201d But the oval is more limited in its scope of activities than regular indoor or outdoor rinks, as it is reserved for recreational skating and speed skating only.<\/span><\/p>\n

These limitations will extend to the Common as a whole warns Katie Campbell, creator of a counter online petition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the last piece of open, unmanaged space,\u201d Campbell says, referring to the original 1763 land grant issued by King George III. Now, almost half of the public, undeveloped space remains, a large portion of which is consumed by the skating rink.<\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell, like Harvey, is not against the idea of a free skating rink but does oppose its location.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea for the North Common is that there is always a temporary use\u2014no permanent structure,\u201d says Campbell.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey echoed her concerns of an overly managed space, referring the baseball league\u2019s loss of seasons\u2014whose diamonds are under the oval. A Jan. 12 regional council decision to boost fees on sports fields and ball diamonds will also mean the league\u2019s necessary relocation will be costly for participants.<\/span><\/p>\n

But none of these unknowns should represent serious concerns \u201cif this is planned properly,\u201d in the words of White.<\/span><\/p>\n

As of now, no such plan exists. Kelly\u2019s opinions on the oval\u2019s possibilities are purely speculative because no long-term strategy for maintaining the rink has been drawn up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the concerns voiced by Campbell and Harvey have largely been dismissed as \u201canti-Oval.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I should be characterized as, is asking questions,\u201d says Harvey.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jan. 6 report listed many similar questions that need answering before decisions are finalized\u2014yet it seems as if Kelly has already made up his mind and promised an oval to the public.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared in The Watch. HALIFAX – \u201cIt\u2019s called vision. Someone has to have that vision for the future. Politicians should quickly see it and understand it. Somebody has to lead.\u201d Mayor Peter Kelly\u2019s most recent vision consists of making the North Common skating oval a permanent fixture after the upcoming Canada WinterContinue reading “Skating Around the Important Questions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8076,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[341],"tags":[3558,497,3554,347,3559,351,3557,3560,553,554,3556,565,3555,760,793,391,3553,3561,499,1261],"class_list":["post-7228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-urban-design","tag-bob-harvey","tag-city-hall","tag-counter-online-petition","tag-development","tag-george-iii","tag-halifax","tag-jeff-white","tag-katie-campbell","tag-king","tag-leader","tag-lower-sackville-coun","tag-mayor","tag-online-petition","tag-peter-kelly","tag-politician","tag-public-space","tag-recreational-services","tag-the-oval-web-site-manager","tag-usd","tag-winter-games"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSkating Around the Important Questions - Spacing Atlantic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2011\/01\/21\/skating-around-the-important-questions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Skating Around the Important Questions - Spacing Atlantic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article first appeared in The Watch. HALIFAX – \u201cIt\u2019s called vision. Someone has to have that vision for the future. Politicians should quickly see it and understand it. 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