Valleyview Arena and the Westsyde Pool will be reopening starting next month.

City of Kamloops recreation supervisor Linda Stride says opening Valleyview Arena will mean three out of six ice sheets will be open for the fall. Both ice sheets at the MacArthur Island Sportsplex have been open through the summer, and she says they have been at 95 per cent capacity, operating from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day.

“We have about 55 adult hockey groups, but many of them are in a holding pattern. So at this point our focus has been the youth. We have about six different groups that are looking for ice. While they already typically would have ice, they would love more ice. But they have expressed their request stand as it would normally, so we know we could fill a third sheet.”

Stride says the Valleyview arena is the most cost-effective rink to reopen. It will open on Sept. 14, for 13 hours each day, and the Westsyde Pool will reopen for 14 hours daily, whenever the Brock Pool closes for the season.

Stride says the Brock Pool typically closes after Labour Day weekend, but it could stay open until mid-September this year.

She adds that once renovations are finished on the Canada Games Pool, in January of 2021, the Westsyde Pool will be closed down and the Canada Games Pool will open up instead.

It will cost the city $104,000 to reopen Valleyview Arena and $200,000 to open the Westsyde Pool until the end of December, which will be paid for with money that’s already in this year’s budget.