AA hockey provincials coming to Taber

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By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

The following are information items that were presented to Taber Recreation Board members at its Feb. 4 meeting.

ARENA DRESSING ROOM ADDITION UPDATE: The new dressing room additions have been in place since early January.

“We have been trying different things, and we are very close to what works for us,” said Aline Holmen, director of recreation for the Town of Taber on the efficient use and cleaning of the new dressing rooms.
“We are getting everyone to use them and see what works best for us.”

That includes everything from traffic patterns, to size of the rooms and size of the groups to get the most efficient use. When we don’t need them we don’t open them. But, the majority of the time they are being used.

Trent Smith, recreation manager for the Town of Taber noted comments have been mixed about the new change rooms at the Taber Arena.

“The comments are all over the board. Some really like them, others don’t like them. The comments are they are great dressing rooms, but some don’t like having to walk that far,” said Smith. “There’s been a lot of comments. What works for one person, doesn’t work for another.”

“The number-one complaint was it’s too far to walk,” added Holmen. “For the most part, comments have been positive. As far as the dressing rooms and the size, the colours, the brightness, all of that. It’s been very positive. As far as the referee room, we are the envy of southern Alberta from what the chief referee told me.”

Recreation board chairman Luke Wijna did a private tour of the new additions to the Taber Arena and he noted he thought they were fantastic.

SOUTHERN ALBERTA RECREATION ASSOCIATION: It has been announced the City of Lethbridge will host the 2016 Southern Alberta Summer Games.

“We are very excited about that, it’s close (to Taber).”

“The last time Lethbridge has hosted them was 2006 which was 10 years ago,” said Holmen.

HOCKEY PROVINCIALS: Taber has been awarded the “AA” bantam hockey provincials from March 17-20.

“We are very excited about that. The last time Taber hosted provincials, they actually got accolades for hosting one of the best provincials in the province I believe. We will be helping them achieve that goal again,” said Holmen. “We’ve already been working on them, just to make sure everything works out and is successful.”

Organizers of the provincials have asked that the small ice surface be shut down for the duration of the event so that each team could be assigned a permanent dressing room the entire weekend.

“Doing an analysis on the financial side, it would be a $450 loss on the small ice revenue, but we are gaining that back with auditorium rental fees to host the event,” said Holmen.

ARENA COMPRESSOR ROOM UPGRADE: Administration has been working with MPE Engineering on the three-year project that involves the redesign of the compressor room and bringing that portion of the facility up to code.

“There are some design flaws in there that are not up to code. We will be seeing some renovations occurring over the next few years. This year will be primarily design drawings and ordering of equipment. Some of that equipment takes a long time to get,” said Holmen. “It’s a project that is long overdue.”

FOURTH BALL DIAMOND: Board members were informed the proposed completion of Ken McDonald Memorial Sports Park’s fourth ball diamond was not included in the 2016 Capital Budget plan due to the extended list of projects required in relation to funds available.

DOG PARK SIGNAGE: The $2,500 that the recreation board recommended at a previous meeting to help improve the Off-Leash Dog Park located near the Taber Pro Rodeo grounds on Highway 864 on the Park Road NE 1/4 1-10-17 W4, had been approved by council in which a second sign was ordered.

“What we found was the Town of Taber owns the property right by the ditch there and have a fence line there. So we put signs in both directions, and you can see it fairly good now at the turn off to the dog park,” said Smith.

COMMUNITY REGISTRATION EVENT: The board was informed the next community registration event for several recreational opportunities will be going Feb. 23 and Feb. 25 from 5-8 p.m. at the Taber Community Centre Auditorium.

“This may very well be where we are coming down to the end of these. More and more groups are going to online registration, and probably in the next year or so there won’t be a need for this,” said Holmen.

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