sports and recreation

Sarah Rennie – LJI reporter

The ice hockey season has officially come to an end at the new rink at Athelstan Park in Hinchinbrooke. The marks on the boards suggest the installation was well-used over the winter, and that bodes well for the upcoming dek hockey season this summer.

Firefighters and members of the public works department worked diligently from late December to maintain the ice surface on the municipality’s new installation. The cold winter allowed for good ice over several weeks as skating parties, pick-up hockey, and broomball games developed organically around the new equipment.

“The council is ecstatic with the turnout and is hoping we will have the same results this summer for the basketball nets and dek hockey,” says Hinchinbrooke director general Adam Antonopoulos.

After the municipality installed new playground equipment in Athelstan Park as well as in Davignon Park a few years ago, Antonopoulos noted that citizens began to ask questions about additional structures. He suggested installing dek hockey equipment with a multi-sport surface that could be used year-round.

The council was on board, and Antonopoulos began searching for grants. The municipality received just under $114,000 from the provincial government as well as $100,000 from the MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent through the Fonds Régions et Ruralité (FRR) – volet 4: Soutien à la Vitalisation et à la Coopération Intermunicipale program, in partnership with the Ministère des Affaires Municipales et de l’Habitation.

“Everyone thought it was a very good project that would benefit pretty much all the neighbouring municipalities,” says Antonopoulos, who notes the municipality has contributed around ten per cent of the final costs.

Delays in the fall almost prevented the installation from being ready this winter. “We are fortunate that the installers were able to get the material and put it up before, you know, our big first freeze,” he says.

The installation is mostly complete. The lights have been installed, and the permanent playing surface is scheduled to be installed this spring along with player benches. 

A second phase, for which the municipality is currently applying for funding, includes upgrades to the small building in the park known locally as the “snack shack.” A new building would serve as a changing room and include bathroom facilities, a rest area, and storage. Cyclists and tourists would also be able to benefit from the rest area and public washrooms during the summer.

Access to water on site would also allow the municipality to flood the rink in winter without having to use a tanker from the fire department. Antonopoulos acknowledges the hard work and time invested by local firefighters and the public works crew to remove the snow and flood the ice. “It was used so much that we had to ice it quite often,” he adds.

Antonopoulos is looking forward to the summer. The park is already used for community softball and T-ball activities. “We had basketball nets with some asphalt, but it was getting pretty tired,” he explains. “It was a nice way to add something without subtracting anything,” he adds.

The infrastructure is available and accessible to the public. “I think the turnout is going to continue and people are going to use it. That’s what it is there for, so people get out and get active,” says Antonopoulos.