Ridgetown arena. December 18, 2017. (Photo by Sarah Cowan Blackburn News Chatham-Kent). Ridgetown arena. December 18, 2017. (Photo by Sarah Cowan Blackburn News Chatham-Kent).
Chatham

Dressing Room Renovations Underway At Ridgetown Arena

Arena staff in Ridgetown say they're doing the best they can to accommodate girls who are playing hockey on co-ed teams.

But local minor hockey officials say the solution municipal officials have come up with at East Kent Memorial Arena isn't good enough.

Supervisor of Recreation Facilities for the Ridgetown District Darren Goyette says renovations are underway on the old skate sharpening room, which South Kent Minor Hockey has been using as its office for the past couple of years. It's being converted into a dressing room.

Goyette says the room will be offered up to the referees first and if they decide to use it, the girls who play on co-ed teams would be able to use the room that's currently used by the referees.

"We've asked that when the room is complete, [the referees] have a look at it and if they're willing to move into it, they'll move into it," says Goyette. "If they think it's too small, they'll stay where they are and the girls will take the new room."

Goyette says the renovated room is on the same side of the arena as all of the other dressing rooms and will be outfitted with a shower, a toilet, a sink, and enough bench and floor space to accommodate approximately eight people. He says that should meet the demands of minor hockey officials who are upset with the previous arrangements, which had girls on co-ed teams changing in a room that's across the rink in a different part of the arena.

South Kent Minor Hockey President Shawn Allen isn't convinced the new dressing room will be an acceptable solution, though.

"They're renovating a room that's not going to be suitable for anyone to use," says Allen. "I'm not sure the logic behind that."

Allen says minor hockey officials were able to fit three filing cabinets, a desk, and two or three chairs in the room while they were using it as their office, adding even that was "tight." He says even once all of their equipment is taken out, it's still not a very large space.

"Once you add a shower, a sink, and a toilet, and the benches, you'll be lucky to fit four people in there," says Allen. "The way we see it is you're solving one problem and creating another."

Allen says if the room isn't big enough to satisfy the current referees and doesn't have enough space for the number of girls who need to use it on a regular basis, the minor hockey board could have to bring in other referees from outside the area, which could result in "huge costs" for the organization.

Despite that speculation, Darren Goyette and municipal officials remain confident the new room will be big enough.

"Typically speaking, there are two or three girls at a time who need a change room," says Goyette, adding they recently started tracking the usage for the girls' dressing room to determine how much space they would need. "There is the occasional time when you have three girls playing back-to-back games, so we've sized it according to that."

Goyette says the size of all of the dressing rooms is based on how many people need to use them. For that reason, the girls' dressing room is only used for girls who are playing co-ed hockey. If a full girls' team is playing, they use a regular-sized dressing room, which is designed for about 24 people.

"Doing a square-footage per-person calculation, they're pretty equal," says Goyette. "We try to base it on a recommendation of 12 sq ft per person, so that's why the [renovated room] is the size that it is."

Construction on the new room is expected to wrap up sometime next week. In the meantime, Allen says the Chatham-Kent Cyclones have been allowing girls on co-ed teams who need a dressing room to use the one they are leasing from the arena.

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