Councillor Russ Hearne has been appointed the chair of the Castlegar and District Recreation Commission. Hearne replaces long-time chair John Voykin who recently retired after 31 years as an RDCK director.
"Voykin has been the chair for 20 or more years and done a great job," said Hearne. "Since he announced his retirement we needed a new chair and I was fortunate enough to be elected."
The recreation commission consists of Castlegar city council representatives Hearne, Mayor Lawrence Chernoff, and councillor Kevin Chernoff, and Area I director Andy Davidoff, and Area J director Gord Zaitsoff.
Hearne said there are several issues the commission is looking at including adding a second ice rink in Castlegar.
"Right now there's the ongoing budget issues," he said. "We're going to look again at the need for a second ice sheet and any kind of renovations we need to do. We need to work on all the general things. We've put in a grant request to do some work on our fitness centre."
Hearne said the second ice sheet would likely be attached to the current one at the community complex.
"It only makes sense if the rec commission feels there is a need and should the Pioneer (Arena) fail, if we build a second sheet it would be attached to the arena," he said. "But we're a long way from that. The referendum failed about a year ago. So now we've got to sit down and see where the need is for minor hockey and engage the communities and see what we have to do."