A year after having their unapproved, outdoor ice rink shut-down, residents in the Scotty Creek Neighbourhood in Ellison met with the Regional District of Central Okanagan on Thursday night to have a look at plans for a new sports amenity in the area.
Plans for a tennis and pickleball court that could be flooded in the winter and used as an outdoor ice rink were presented to residents in Scotty Creek on Thursday evening by the RDCO parks department, looking for feedback on the concept.
"The idea is that this would be a bit more than a winter facility," said RDCO communications officer Bruce Smith. "It would be something they could use in the summer for tennis and pickleball and then in the winter they could flood it for hockey and skating."
Conceptual plans have been moving forward on the idea and if the residents show enough support, construction on the new surface could take place this fall using money the RDCO has acquired in a $110,000 grant from the Canada-BC gas tax fund.
The new tennis court/ice rink would be located in the existing Scotty Creek community park, which already features a small soccer and baseball field and is adjacent to Ellison Elementary school. Preliminary plans point to the northwest corner of the park as the location, a part of the park closest to the entrance to the school but that is not regularly used by students.
"The location provides the best access to power and water as well as the use of the school parking lot for after hours activity and would minimize disturbance to the remaining sport/turf areas," stated a RDCO flyer advertising the meeting.
It's expected the court would be fenced for safety and liability reasons.
For the past several years, residents in Scotty Creek had been flooding a vacant lot owned by the Black Mountain Irrigation District. But that ended last fall when BMID decided to restrict the use of the lot due to liability issues on the old well site, which is no longer used to provide water services.
"If everything goes well and everyone is happy with what they are seeing proposed in the concept, then we hope to start work on construction this fall and do as much as we can, depending on the weather," said Smith.