Dear Editor,
The Rich Valley Agricultural Society regrets to inform our community we have suffered a major set back with the breakdown of our ice plant, which has delayed our ability to start up indefinitely.
The chiller component, which cools the brine that is pumped through the floor to maintain the ice surface, has failed, and will need to be replaced.
At this time, we are actively investigating our options and attempting to secure funding in order to complete this extremely costly repair. We ask that you be patient with us as we try to find a solution to our current situation.
The Rich Valley Agricultural Society is not only an important staple to Rich Valley, but also to many other surrounding communities. The facility is where we come together as a community and where our children learn to skate, play baseball and kick a soccer ball. We are fortunate to be able to teach them in the same building and on the same grounds where generations before them learned and grew to enjoy sports.
This is where our children begin to learn to socialize and co-operate with others and to become community-minded individuals who know the value of volunteering. These services provided cannot be measured in dollars and cents, as they are truly priceless.
If asked to quantify the value of this facility, it could easily be measured by the number of community members it provides for. We serve families from Barrhead, Busby, Dunstable, Ross Haven, Gunn, Alberta Beach, Glenevis, Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation, Cherhill, Onoway and more.
They come to take part in our fun hockey, figure skating, baseball and soccer programs. This past summer, we had enough children to have a team in every age group of baseball (except U18), which hasn’t happened in several years. In addition, this winter would have seen one of the largest number of participants in our hockey programs. Not only do we provide structured programs, but we also offer free public skating once a week, which has the highest attendance of any public skating program amongst area arenas, including Spruce Grove and Stony Plain.
We also have eight adult teams who rent weekly ice slots from our facility, and five ice slots a week that the Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation have requested.
The regular rentals are also supplemented as we are the overflow arena for Barrhead, Stony Plain, Spruce Grove and St. Albert, with both Spruce Grove Minor Hockey and Can West (St. Albert) renting regular slots with us this year. With all of these rentals, we are fully booked most nights of the week.
All in all, we are very busy for a small arena and every year our Board of Directors and Facility manager works very hard in order to secure new ice rentals.
Our community hall is booked regularly year-round with weddings, reunions, birthday parties, meetings, fundraisers. The AG also supports our community families by hosting funerals, for which we organize and serve luncheons.
Along with our indoor facilities, we have large grounds that host gymkhanas, horse shows and sales, driving shows, baseball tournaments, camping rallies and much more. We have recently been fortunate to secure a five-day rental from the Alberta Good Sam RV Club, that will bring in around 700 people to our facility for a camping rally, which we benefit from due to the fact they use all local vendors and entertainment during their stay.
Even though most of our income comes from the rentals, the Rich Valley Agricultural Society also hosts a number of events which encourage community involvement and advertise our facility such as our annual Steak Supper, Family Dance, Halloween Bash, Skate with Santa and annual fair. Unfortunately, in 2018 we were unable to host the fair, but are hoping to re-establish this going forward.
As you can see, without this facility operating within our community and within Lac Ste. Anne County, families in the immediate area and surrounding communities as a whole will definitely suffer. Individuals and families will be required to travel to the larger centers for sports and recreation which will lead to less community involvement, division within our community and possible isolation.
It is our fear that if people leave and join other groups, it will be difficult to entice them to return in the future. This will be an enormous loss to our immediate community and one from which we may never fully recover.
Over recent years, as the building continues to age, we have focused on completing various upgrades in order to keep us operating. We have undertaken the following actions:
• Upgraded our fire alarm as required by the National Fire Code
• Upgraded fire suppressant system in the kitchen
• Upgraded lights in the lobby
• Refurbished our compressor and motor on ice plant
• Replaced brine pump and motor on ice plant
• Added new lighting over the ice surface
• Replaced concrete slab at the main entrance
• Replaced doors damaged by vandalism
• Upgraded the ball diamond
Rich Valley Agricultural Society gains its yearly monetary resources to cover costs through rentals, fundraising, Lac Ste. Anne County Grant and Alberta Association of Agricultural Societies Grant. With the exception of the ball diamond, which we did receive an additional grant for, all of these repairs and upgrades have been paid for out of the aforementioned finances.
Although we have been canvassing for corporate donations to fund further repairs and upgrades, currently we have been unable to secure support. The reality is that we are in an obscure location where the larger surrounding centres have arenas within their community boundaries, and most corporate donors are already supporting them. We have also had very little success when applying for grants; both the CFEP large stream and CIP grant applications having been denied, and although we have applied for the ability to run a casino, we will not have the opportunity to do so until April-June of 2019.
Unfortunately, this latest crisis has put a presently insurmountable strain on our finances which we cannot quickly recover from, or support with our available funds.
We are looking to our community members and those of the surrounding areas to hear our story and understand our urgent need. If there is any way you can support us, including ideas on how we can keep our Arena running this year, please let us know.
Again, thank you for the support you have given our community. We remain hopeful that we can resolve our current situation and provide positive feedback soon.
Gina Hove
Rich Valley Agriculutral Society
