Community input sought for Lot 106 rink

These days, the hockey rink in Lot 106 of the New Development area of town is looking anything but new.

According to Roiatate Horn, director of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) Sports and Recreation Unit, that’s because it was not made to be a permanent installation - and yet, it has been up for years.

“It is not made for full-time outdoor use, it’s plywood and two whiteboards put together for the hockey boards,” said Horn. “In the past, they were put out there seasonally. Before I got here, in my position of director, they were seasonal installations. They were put up in the winter and then taken down in the spring.”

Horn said that, for reasons he did not know, the temporary rinks - in Lot 106 and some other places in town - were kept up the whole year, for a few years.

“The wood that is used for those is not made to withstand the weather 24/7 for that long, or getting hit by hockey pucks and lacrosse balls for years,” said Horn. “It’s not an issue of lack of maintenance; it’s just the lifespan of lumber that’s not made for that kind of outdoor use.”

To help decide the future of the rink installation in Lot 106, Sports and Recreation have asked community members to answer a survey, comprising a half-dozen questions tackling subjects like location, safety, and noise concerns.

Community members have until December 17 to answer the survey questions online on the MCK’s website.

Horn said that the goal is to make the temporary rinks permanent, if the community decides that is the way to go forward.

“We have materials that are rated for 365 days per year, for a variety of weather, from extreme heat to extreme cold, and the usage of sports and recreation equipment,” said Horn.

If it is decided that the current location is to the community’s liking, Horn said that while there are no current backup plans, there will be discussions with the Lands Unit if need be.

“We have a good relationship with our lands department. If we need to pivot at some point, we can work very quickly with them on a possible new location,” said Horn.

In the meantime, this winter will be the last season of the Lot 106 rink in its current form. At the time of writing, the turf there was in the process of being removed to allow the possibility of making a frozen surface there - something that has proven to be difficult to do in the past.

“This is going to be my third winter with Sports and Recreation. And the last two seasons, we were not successful in putting ice on there,” said Horn.

But, with temperatures dropping drastically at the end of the month of November and staying below freezing - besides this week’s rainy weather - there is hope of getting an ice surface ready.

“We were looking at possibly taking the rink down right away, but seeing that the weather changed and got cold so quickly so early in the season, we’re going to attempt to go and put ice in this year, so that way the community in that area have some free recreation in terms of skating and hockey,” said Horn.

Ice surface or not, the rink is now scheduled to be dismantled in the spring.

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