Ice-rink proposal presented

Ruapehu Bulletin, 25 August 1992, Page 11

Ice-rink proposal presented

About 20 people turned out on a wet, cold and windy night recently to hear a presentation on Ohakune's ice skating rink at the Ohakune - Karioi rugby clubrooms. Ohakune Community Development Team (OCDT) ice-rink convener, Dennis Beytagh presented a progress report on the project on Wednesday 12 August. Mr Beytagh told the meeting that while he did not have all the answers at this stage, his preliminary report provided an opportunity to involve the business community, who stand to benefit most by an all-weather, all-year round ice rink facility. Mr Beytagh reported on the results of his investigations over the past two years and explained the reasons for deciding to pursue the airdome concept rather than conventional forms of

building. "Video Bill" Adams ran a video showing how quickly and easily an air dome can be erected - a matter of a few hours. Mr Beytagh presented 'ball-park' costings for the air domes and compared these with the ice rink patronage that would have to be generated to recover capital costs over any given period. These showed that if the air dome were to cost about $lm, the capital costs could be recovered with an average of 9-10 skaters on the rink in five daily sessions over five years, each paying $10. He said the cost recovery period could be altered to suit, depending on the actual costs of the project. "I cannot imagine such low averages over any given year simply because of the high number - up to 400 per session on some days

during the ski season," said Mr Beytagh. "By 2pm last Saturday when the skifield was closed the Ohakune Visitor Information Centre handled about 400 enquiries from people seeking alternative activities," said Mr Beytagh. He said an Olympicsized rink was a highvolume income earner with the ability to cope with up to 400 skaters per session. Mr Beytagh was asked to compare the patronage of the proposed rink with ones in Auckland and Christchurch. "Bigger cities have many more competing attractions and recreational activities such as swimming, sailing, theatres, concerts, museums, art galleries and culture centres," he said, "Here we will have a unique, allweather recreational facility which could attract thousands of people." He produced a chart Turn to page 13

Ice rink proposal

From page 1 1 showing that within a 30-40 minute drive from Ohakune there is a base population of 10,250 people. Of these nearly 2000 were school children and over 1000 were service-men at Waiouru - two categories likely to become regular patrons of the ice-rink.

The chart showed that within a one-hour drive from Ohakune the population to draw on increases to 20,750 of whom 5,210 would be school children. A further 30-minute drive would include Wanganui and Taupo and increase the population base by another 65,000

making a total of nearly 100,000. "I don't think a one and a half hours' drive to such a facility with the family at weekends or during school holidays to be able to ice-skate - whatever the weather - is unreasonable," he said. "There would be no problem filling the rink

at each session durmg the ski season - particularly given the sort of weather we've been having this year - but I'm sure we would have enough people in the Central North Island using the ice-rink through the summer months too, to make it viable throughout the year."