After skating on thin ice towards a new ice allocation policy at the arena, town officials and the Sundre Minor Hockey Association have finally come to an agreeable compromise.
Ian James, community services manager, brought council up to speed during the Sept. 19 meeting, starting with some background on what led to the situation.
On Aug. 29, administration presented a new ice allocation policy to council for a request for decision. In light of the proposed changes to the ice allocation policy, members of Sundre minor hockey had raised concerns that at least two of the new procedures would hamper the association's ability to operate its business and complete its financial obligations, he said.
So council had during the Aug. 29 meeting directed administrative staff to get back together with representatives from minor hockey for another attempt to find common ground that both sides could agree to on a policy that could then be brought back for final approval, he said.
“On August 30, Connie Anderson, past president of Sundre minor hockey, and myself, we got together for a discussion as to come up with a compromise with the procedures, and we were successful in coming up with a compromise on every point.”
The key sticking areas in the originally proposed updates for the ice allocation policy were the 14-day cancellation notice as well as the two-installment prepayments for ice rental — 30 per cent by Nov. 1 and 70 per cent by Jan. 15, he said.
“The compromise we came up with is that Sundre minor hockey would prepay their practice ice rentals monthly, so that was acceptable to administration, and as well as the tournament and game fees would be invoiced at the end of the month.”
All other youth sports user groups of the arena will be following the same procedures for consistency and simplicity's sake, he said.
As for ice cancellation, a 72-hour notice period was agreed to by both sides with the caveat that the minor hockey association will make an effort to reach out to its network in the event of a cancellation to make an effort to find another user group to take on the ice, he said.
The next step before the policy could be brought back to council for final approval was to have it approved by the minor hockey association's board of directors, which agreed to the new recommended ice allocation policy and procedural changes as presented during its Sept. 8 meeting, he said, adding administration was now asking council to do the same.
Coun. Myron Thompson congratulated both sides for getting together to find agreeable common ground to reach a compromise, and moved for council to accept the recommended motion to rescind the former ice allocation policy and approve the updated document.
“It worked well for both sides. We got to work together — there's no use butting your head against everything,” Anderson told the Round Up on Sept. 20 during a phone conversation, adding the minor hockey board of directors is “very happy” with the compromise.
“It just had to be done.”
