Newmarket’s Lions Park community hockey rink has a new lease on life as the town has taken it over, celebrating its opening in time for the holidays on Dec. 23.
Dignitaries were on hand for a ceremonial puck drop and family shinny time to mark the opening of the new rink. After a decade of running the rink, local Chris Howie and his team of volunteers let the town take over this year, with a new artificial cooling system installed to help it withstand warmer temperatures.
Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said it is a great thing for the holidays.
“I can’t think of anything better at Christmas time than seeing a bunch of kids out there, skating around playing shinny,” Taylor said.
Newmarket council opted to take over the rink earlier this year, with Howie's blessing. The rink has been a mainstay of the park for years, with Howie putting hundreds of hours each winter into ensuring the natural ice surface was of high quality.
But warmer weather has made that more of a challenge in recent years. The town decided to step in, using new technology that will help the rink withstand warmer weather and take the load off of volunteers to maintain the ice surface.
“Our best investment as a town is in outdoor recreation,” Taylor said. “Chris (Howie) has done this forever and probably would have kept going knowing Chris, but he was putting in like a lot, a lot, a lot of hours.
“Once this new system came online in the last couple of years, it gave us a chance to sort of see how well it works,” Taylor added. “Who knows, maybe we’ll do another one one day in another part of town.”
Theresa Gorman has used the rink for years and said she is excited for the new ice.
“I’m sure it’ll be well used and it’s so nice to be open all the time for the kids to use it,” Gorman said. “It was a lot of work for Chris Howie and the volunteers that did it, so it’s nice that the town has taken it over to afford the use of it probably a little bit more often.”
The opening day also featured a visit from Philadelphia Flyers draft pick and Newmarket-local Denver Barkey, who came by to play on the new ice.
Howie thanked the town for taking on the rink.
“Feeling relief the refrigeration system is in place and that I’ll get 400-500 hours back,” Howie said. “However, I will miss the children saying, ‘Thank you,’ and I hope the rink will continue to support the charities I have supported the past 10 winters.
“Thanks to all the volunteers that have helped me over the years and for my mother Margaret and father Doug for instilling in me the importance of giving back to others,” Howie added.
The rink will be open for Christmas Eve from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., before closing for Christmas Day and Boxing Day. After that, the rink will be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. over the holidays, though only from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. New Year's Eve and closed New Year's Day.
From Jan. 6 onward, the rink will be open from 4 to 10 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekends.
More information is available at newmarket.ca/skating.
