posted on February 16, 2006

Fact sheet on City of Toronto community Boards of Management

Belinda Cole's recent research into the possibility of establishing a board of management to run the rink at Dufferin Grove looked at the Municipal Act, 2001 and city by-laws which govern the creation and operation of boards of management.

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posted Feburary 11, 2006

Report of Community Meeting about Rink Management Board Proposal

February 7, 2006, Dufferin Park Rinkhouse

February 7 2006 rink meeting report.

Present:

• a roomful of rink users
• some Dufferin Rink staff, plus
• City Councillor Adam Giambrone;
• Parks, Forestry and Recreation director Don Boyle
• 4-5 representatives of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 416.
  
  

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posted February 1, 2006

Why a Management Board for City Outdoor Rinks?

To: All friends of City of Toronto outdoor rinks:

Public meeting Tuesday Feb.7

Dufferin Rink, 7.p.m.

The City's management of outdoor compressor-run ice rinks isn’t working.

For quite a few years now, friends of Dufferin Rink and other outdoor rinks have advocated for improvements in outdoor rink operations throughout the city. Sometimes it seemed like we were getting somewhere, but lots of times the problems returned.

Now we seem to have hit a wall. Outdoor rinks are still often poorly maintained. At Dufferin Rink, the zamboni drivers say they can’t stand working at any rink run like this one. The city's management, distracted by a problematic departmental reorganization, has let this situation develop with little interference. Read More >>

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posted January 31, 2006

Outdoor Rink Reports, 2005 - 2006

Here's a look at the running of some of Toronto's outdoor rinks during the rink season of 2005/2006. Toronto has 47 neighborhood compressor-powered outdoor rinks (that's not counting the big outdoor rinks in central squares). The rinks range from lively meeting places for their neighborhoods to squalid hangouts for very troubled people. The rinks are also demonstration sites of the joys and troubles that beset city staff. Jutta Mason visited some rinks every day, some just occasionally.Read More >>

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posted Feburary 15, 2006

Ice Thickness

Each time the ice surface is flooded, the ice slab increases in thickness. While this increase is minimal, there is an additive effect throughout the rink season. Rain events also create thicker ice if the excess water is not scraped off before temperatures fall below freezing. Thicker ice requires more energy to keep it frozen on warmer or sunny days. On these days, the refrigeration plant may not be able to keep a thicker ice sheet frozen, resulting in the sloppy ice that we've all come to know and hate.Read More >>

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posted February 19, 2006

A Clash of Cultures

by Henrik Bechmann

Recent events at Dufferin Grove Park leading to the contemplation of a Management Board for the rink again raise the question: why is there a serious "crisis" -- a conflict with the city -- once or twice a year?

There are many layers to this, but I submit that there is an underlying reason: a clash of cultures between the Dufferin Park Community ("the Park") and the City bureaucracy, specifically the Parks, Forestry & Recreation Department ("PFR"). The following are admittedly generalizations, and somewhat simplified, but to my mind and experience (I have been a software consultant to many organizations for decades) ring true.

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