Georgetown Arenas Task Force Listens to Delegations

Ten organizations spoke to the Georgetown Arenas Task Force during the recent open meeting held at the Mold-Masters Sportsplex on Thursday, January 8th. The organizations represented were: Halton Hurricanes, Georgetown Junior A Raiders, Georgetown Seniors, Optimist Club of Georgetown, Georgetown Skating Club, Acton Skating Club, Acton Tanners, Georgetown Minor Hockey Association, Twisters – North Halton Girls Hockey, and the Acton Chargers.

They brought a variety of messages to the Task Force including: ice needs, the number of participants who are going out of Halton Hills to obtain the necessary ice time, and the dollars spent in other communities to accommodate Halton Hills youth. The groups also indicated the various ways that have seen the need to adjust their programs to provide ice time to participants.

The Hurricanes require an additional 45 hours of ice time per week in order to bring Halton Hills arenas into their scheduling agendas. The Junior A Raiders could use one more practice time of 2 hours duration. The seniors of Georgetown would like an approximate 10,000 square foot facility to accommodate their growing needs. The Optimist’s would enjoy greater access to ice to provide more family skating during PA Days as well as an opportunity to use the ice facility for fundraising purposes. The presentation by 5 User Groups indicated a number of significant factors such as: How the hours of ice time are allotted to the various users; The various groups use 267.50 hours per week of ice at all Halton Hills Arenas, a number that has not changed in three years even though registration numbers have increased.

The statistics presented from the Six Combined Users represented more than 3,700 participants in their organizations. These numbers do not represent Junior A Raiders or various Adult Leagues or Public Skating. It is estimated that in order to accommodate all participants in the programs more than $180,110.00 is spent on ice rentals outside of Halton Hills. It should be noted that the Halton Hurricanes receive no ice allocation in Halton Hills and it is estimated that 50% of Twisters ice is obtained from outside of Halton Hills as well.

It was indicated to the Task Force that Acton House League – Select Teams have no “home ice”; Bantams practice at Memorial Arena; no practices are available for Midget House-League teams with Development programs just not available.

To accommodate all registered in the Georgetown Skating Club programs, they have had to reduce ice time allocated to the figure skating programs in order to meet the demands; minimize ice flooding; eliminate Competitive Skate Program for the 2008/2009 season and not able to introduce a synchronized skating program. Georgetown Minor Hockey Association has suffered some of the same fate and as result have made some significant adjustments to their programs, such as; no practices for Midget House-League teams; most Development Programs are running at 50% of required ice time. The GMHA require an additional 330 hours of ice time than what is currently assigned to their season.

Membership in the Twisters Girls Hockey has been capped since 2002 at 333 players. By using out-of-town arenas growth has again taken off to over 500 in 2006.

The Users have developed ways and became creative to obtain extra ice time by:

• Limited/curtailed flooding of the ice
• Revamped programs
• Shortened games
• More youth per team
• Specialty training done earlier in the year
• Shared ice time practices
• More skaters per coach in figure skating sessions

The common theme presented to the Georgetown Arenas Task Force was one of a significant lack of ice time to offer the youth programs to the youngsters desiring to participate.

The Georgetown Arenas Task Force will again meet with the Public and User Groups at the next scheduled meeting: Thursday, January 22, 2009 at the Mold-Masters Sportsplex – Heritage Room (upstairs) starting at 7:00 pm.

Delegations who have registered in advance are: Acton Charger Select Teams; Georgetown Hockey Heritage Council; Arena Pro Hockey Program; Public Skating; Sports Unlimited and a private resident (via e-mail). Others are welcome to attend and participate.

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