The latest on the Bon Soo bum slides

Although a lot of area kids and their families have been disappointed about the Bon Soo Winter Playground closures this year, yesterday while wandering through Bellevue Park, SooToday.com found three-year-old Kate deBeer sliding in the ditch located next to the bum slides.

She seemed perfectly happy with this equally slippery, albeit smaller, alternative.

We received the following update today from the festival organizing committee regarding the current condition of the Bon Soo Winter Playground and bum slides.

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The bum slides will be closed this evening to allow repair and ice making.

Scheduled school visits WILL proceed Friday morning. 

We are pleased that all schools that were booked in the afternoon have been rescheduled to morning slots or otherwise accommodated, so no classes missed their visit completely – this makes us very happy.

In past years at least one class has to be cancelled outright. 

One class chose to just come and play in the park instead of rescheduling, and they were able to do that in this great weather.

Tonight, the Kinsmen Free Family Skate is being held at the Essar Centre, from 7-9 p.m., so this might be a fun alternative to families looking for a nice winter activity.

A bit of slide 101

On Tuesday, our team reblew new snow onto the slides to repair the deep gouges caused by regular use in irregular weather.

The gouges present a real hazard to the children, a boot could easily be caught in them. 

Each afternoon our team goes to work patching gouges caused by the morning visits.

It is necessary to have cold weather to allow the patches to freeze in place.

During the afternoons at the slides, the weather has been a balmy +1 or +2…not exactly ideal ice-making weather. 

Our team goes to work in the evening, watering regularly once the temperature falls to a suitable level. 

Although to a passerby in the late afternoon, the slides look great, very few children sliding would remove that very thin top layer that has been allowed to build up during the patching process, and they would be rendered unsafe, thus unusable, in less than half an hour of sliding.

Mother Nature seems inclined to be a bit friendlier to the slides tonight and tomorrow, and we remain confident for Friday evening.

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