Skaters check out the new skating path behind the CP Rail Station. The path was officially opened Saturday morning. Photo by Marc Archambault, Special to BayToday.ca It’s been a long time coming, but North Bay finally has its own Rideau Canal.
Skaters check out the new skating path behind the CP Rail Station. The path was officially opened Saturday morning. Photo by Marc Archambault, Special to BayToday.ca
It’s been a long time coming, but North Bay finally has its own Rideau Canal.
Skater enthusiasts gathered together on Saturday morning behind the former CP Rail Station on Oak Street for the official ribbon cutting ceremony of North Bay’s newest outdoor skating rink.
Rod Johnston, of the Community Waterfront Friends, said the idea for the rink came a long time ago from members of the Kiwanis Club who wanted to make an artificial rink in the city.
He says, though, that they never really had a place to put it until now with all the rail lands being cleared up. So the waterfront friends took on the task to have the rink implemented in their plans.
"We’ve been suggesting since we started with our vision that we could do winter activities here," Johnston said. But while people told Johnston no one would support such an endeavor, especially when it gets colder, he was convinced people would come if it were built.
"We think they will [come] once it’s in place," Johnston said.
Getting the rink up and running for operations was the next step. At first Johnston thought that the rink would be small, but then another idea came up.
"If we had a Zamboni, we could do a big long extension and we could do it like the Ottawa Canal system but on a smaller scale," Johnston explained.
Two days later Johnston got a call from Johnston Motors informing him that two used Zambonis were for sale. "So we purchased them," Johnston says.
North Bay Mayor Vic Fedeli says that the city had little to do with the rink. But he does say that there was some paper work that needed to be done first to allow the shed that houses the Zamboni, the hose and the equipment to be built.
Fedeli believes that the rink is a great idea to attract people to come downtown.
"This is the kind of initiative that we need to keep bringing people down to the waterfront, which also supports our downtown core, and every time we develop something new this is another step forward," Fedeli said.
Johnston is happy with how quickly things progressed.
"It’s all come together to allow us to do this, and here it is,” Johnston said.
“It’s just magic to me that in the last week we managed to pull it together.”
