The rink volunteers who have flooded the same pad since 1998
Four of them, most nights from December, and a hose they have repaired more times than they will admit.
The pad is city land and the ice is not a city program. It never has been.
Four people flood it, most nights, from the first hard freeze until it goes. The city supplies the water and, since a council motion two years ago, the boards.
They have been asked several times whether they want it made official. They have said no every time, on the grounds that official comes with a schedule.
The pad has been flooded every winter but one since 1998. The exception was 2012, when the hose finally gave out in January and the replacement took three weeks to arrive.
Two of the four have children who learned to skate on it. One of those children now helps with the flooding.
The city has offered twice to take the pad on. Both times the offer came with a maintenance schedule, a liability review and a start date, and both times the four said no on the same grounds: the ice goes in when it is cold enough, not when a calendar says so.
It is a small argument about a small pad and it is also the whole difference between a service and a neighbourhood.
