LETTER: How many indoor hockey rinks do Sault taxpayers really need?

SooToday has received the following letter to the editor from Saultite Mark Brown who wonders about the wisdom of our city's priorities:

Let's see.

After the new $25 Million dollar NHL-sized Twin Pad Arena is built at the McMeeken site our city will have a total of five(5) indoor hockey rinks that are paid for by taxpayers:

- Two rinks in the east end at the Rhodes,
- one(1) downtown at the GFL Memorial Gardens, and
- two(2) $25 Million dollar new rinks at the McMeeken site in the west end.

That's a total of Five(5) taxpayer built and maintained hockey rinks in the Sault plus several other private rinks in and around town.

Q/ How many indoor hockey rinks do Sault taxpayers really need to pay for?

A/ Four(4).

One in the east end, one in the west end, one downtown, and one uptown.

Four(4) NHL-sized, city owned and maintained, indoor hockey rinks can most definitely service all of the hockey playing and skating needs of all of the residents of Sault Ste. Marie with the bonus of having one NHL-sized indoor rink within walking distance, more or less, of every citizen of our wonderful city.

Our City's Staff disagrees that four(4) is enough. They think we taxpayers need five(5) so they're recommending that we taxpayers spend an extra $11 Million dollars to build two NHL-sized indoor ice rinks in the west end instead of just one brand new indoor ice rink to replace the McMeeken.

Similarly, I think there should also be four(4) full-service Libraries in our city.

And those Libraries should be very close to the four(4) NHL-sized indoor rinks owned and operated by our city.

Specifically, one full-service Library in the east end, one in the west end, one downtown, and one uptown.

One taxpayer funded Library and one NHL-sized indoor hockey rink in each area of the Sault (east, west, uptown, and downtown) can easily be set out as the direction our city should take by our Mayor and Council at the Monday March 18th City Council meeting so that every man, woman, and child has an indoor rink and a full-service library within reasonably close walking distance as the most desirable, well-balanced future of Sault Ste. Marie.

Or our Mayor and Council can go with five(5) indoor rinks at a cost of $25 Million dollars to us taxpayers with no libraries in the east end or west end.

The City Council meeting starts at 4:30 pm next Monday March 18th at City Hall (99 Foster Drive).

Come down to City Hall if you have something to say about this Two west end indoor rinks that will cost taxpayers $25 Million dollars with no west end library and no east end library City Council decision.

According to the Mayor City Council rarely turns down a request to speak.

Mark Brown
Sault Ste. Marie, ON