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A fit proposal
The Wellington Dukes, along with its new women’s team, are presenting village residents and the municipality with a gift. A much-needed facility here in Wellington. All that is needed is for Council to get onboard.
On Thursday, Randy Uens, VP of Hockey Operations for the Wellington Dukes is presenting a proposal to equip and operate a gym facility in the Wellington and District Community Centre. The plan is to convert the underused Rotary Meeting room into a professional workout, exercise and training facility.
The Dukes intend to invest $60,000 into the room—in weights, machines and gym kit. The team plans to operate the facility as a profit centre. While several hours each week will be dedicated for the use of the Dukes’ players, the gym will generally be open to the public on a fee-paying basis. The Dukes seek to fill an important gap in the local market—one in which many healthy and active seniors have settled, but are not yet ready to retire into a rocking chair. While there is a cluster of fitness and training facilities in Picton, including the municipally subsidized PEFAC, there is no equivalent in this rapidly-developing village.
Other teams and emerging athletes will be encouraged to use the facility—levering the athletic and training acumen resident in perhaps Canada’s most successful junior hockey franchises.
The Wellington Dukes aren’t looking for a handout. They will build the facility and pay rent, delivering a superior return on this room than it generates currently. The team is also offering to kick in a percentage of the net proceeds of the venture.
Running a junior hockey team is a costly business, more so over the past decade. Teams like the Dukes must innovate and find new ways to find the resources to make ends meet, or they will disappear. There have been too many examples of this in recent years including the loss of the Kingston Voyageurs. For some teams this means leaning more heavily on the fans, through ticket prices or concessions from the municipality.
The proposal on the table this week ought to be seized upon by fans and every taxpayer of this community, because it does neither of these things. It is a plan that is aimed at sustaining a team that presents thrilling entertainment from August through spring each year. It is a plan that puts money into County coffers. It is a plan that provides a muchneeded service to its residents.
All council has to do is to say yes.
The Dukes need this gym as a tool to recruit and retain players to Wellington. Many of these elite athletes are working toward scholarships and, perhaps, pro careers in this game. Every Dukes player is coming here to get better and to develop his or her skills. To do so they need to get stronger, more agile and more fit. An onsite training facility is a significant emblem of the Wellington Dukes commitment to developing better hockey players.
As a host family for Dukes players for more than a decade, it became clear too that these young men will well benefit from the diversion and employment opportunities this facility might present— in training, coaching or supervision.
One of the smartest recommendations made during the planning for the new Wellington and District Community Centre in 2008, was the addition of a walking track around the full circumference of the arena. The Dukes coach and GM then was Marty Abrams. He was part of the committee defining the needs and shape of the proposed facility. Abrams had just returned from a World Junior A Challenge tournament in Nelson, B.C.
The Nelson District Community Complex is a multi purpose recreation and community centre serving the Central Kootney region featuring an array of aquatic and fitness facilities in addition to the arena. What struck Abrams however was the walking track, several lanes that encircled the entire rink. He noted that the concourse was continually populated with walkers, runners and other athletes the entire week he was there for the tournament.
That concept was quickly adopted by the committee. This simple addition has become one of the most used aspects of the Wellington facility. At all hours, folks are moving at their own pace around the rink, with no risk of foul weather or ice to impede their ambitions.
With the Dukes proposal, there are fresh new reasons for more folks to use this facility—to get healthier and more fit.
Council talks a lot about facilitating healthier lifestyles in our community. Here is their opportunity to put these words into action.
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