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4- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday June 30, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Adult hockey players shut out of Twin Rinks arena By Kim Arnott SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Young hockey players, figure skaters and other ice users are the big winners as a result of the town's decision to purchase the bankrupt Twin Rinks arena. By adding the ice time available at the facility ­ soon to be renamed the Joshua Creek Arenas ­ to Oakville's current supply, the Town is expecting to be able to provide all youth user groups with all the ice time they need for the coming season. However, the kids will soon be displacing adult users, who rented much of the former private arena's prime time ice in the past. Groups such as the Men's Adult Hockey League, as well as the Dick Decloe Hockey Academy and the Ready Set Skate program, will not have access to prime time ice, according to a staff report presented to the Town's Community Services Committee on Tuesday night. Oakville purchased the arena complex for $7.5 million as a result of a bankruptcy auction this spring. However, the Town hadn't budgeted for the cost of running the facility, so is now trying to determine how to best fund this year's expenditures. Town arenas currently rent an hour of ice time for $166, with a subsidy to minor sports groups to bring the price down to $130 per hour. Prior to its bankruptcy, Twin Rinks offered ice time at rates ranging from $240 to $310 per hour. Last year, both the Minor Oaks Hockey Association (MOHA) and the Oakville Hornets rented ice time from the private arena because they couldn't get all the hours they needed on Town ice. That fact led Town staff to suggest a compromise on the pricing structure for the rental of Twin Rinks ice for the coming season. Staff suggested the town should To learn more about Rotary in Oakville and beyond visit our website: www.oakvillerotary.org charge the two minor hockey groups the rate they paid at the private arena last year, up to the number of hours they had previously booked. Additional hours at the facility would be charged at the town's subsidized rate. "The premise behind this is that the cost would already be in the organization's budget," explained Nina de Vaal, the town's director of recreation and culture. She added that the idea might provide a short-term way to minimize the impact on taxpayers while not being too onerous for the user groups. "The opportunities to mitigate costs are fairly limited when the facility's been allocated almost entirely to minor sports groups," de Vaal added. However, the staff suggestion infuriated MOHA executives who said it was "discriminatory pricing." "We are effectively going to be fined $70,000 for using that facility last year to support our kids," said MOHA vice-president Wayne Moorehead. Although the hockey league rented 22 hours a week from Twin Rinks last year, Moorehead said they had considered the idea of not renting any time for the coming sea- son, due to the cost. MOHA president Mike Zardo said the new arena should be operated fairly, with the same ice fee imposed on all groups. "We've worked diligently with the Town and we're just going to get shafted somehow," he said. "If we couldn't afford to buy it, we shouldn't have bought it." Ward 4 Councillor Al Elgar noted the staff suggestion was designed to provide the town with one year's breathing space to deal with the arena's costs, while staff develop a commercial ice rate to charge all users of town ice running for-profit programs. The committee eventually opted to recommend the town charge subsidized town rates for to all youth sports groups using the new facility. That will result in the Town needing to find $107,200 to fund Twin Rink operations in 2007. A final decision on the issue will be made by the full Town Council on July 3. Council will also provide a final decision on the name change for the arena, as well as a staff recommendation to issue a Request for Proposals to lease out the restaurant that is part of the arena complex.