There have been some big numbers reported by the Department of Leisure Services for January, and for 2014 as well.
“In the year 2014 we had 416,073 people visit or attend a program in a leisure facility,” said Leisure Services Director Bill Samborski to the Planning Committee on Tuesday. That does not include any of the outdoor fields, it was noted.
Samborski also noted Allen Sapp Gallery had 89,718 hits on their website. “We have people interested in what we’re doing.”
The numbers continue to impress councillors who said they remain impressed with the interest and use of leisure services facilities, which include the arenas, the CUplex and galleries.
Samborski said Tuesday that his department never wanted to “focus on stats all the time because they don’t tell a true story of what’s going on,” but “some of the stats are so cool it’s hard not to bring them forward.”
Among the stats was that 40,774 people visited a City of North Battleford leisure facility in January, a number pretty much on par with similar numbers seen the last few months.
Those include 14,658 visiting the aquatic centre, including 2,532 elementary students taking part in school swim lessons, as well as a total of 1,050 spectators attending the Orcas 2-day swim meet.
Also, Saskatoon Kayak Club utilizes the waves on Saturday mornings for training. They include a young nationally-ranked kayaker who competes internationally.
As well, 11,122 patrons participated in activities at the field house.
Samborski’s report also noted that visitors to the galleries came from as far away as Nebraska, Victoria, Winnipeg, Prince George and the Sunshine Coast.
Zachari Logan is displaying his most recent work at the Chapel Gallery and it was noted his work is currently being simultaneously exhibited in Seattle, Brussels, New York and North Battleford.
Samborski also referred to Winter-tainment Week that was under way, as well as the grand opening of the new synthetic ice surface at Rotary Plaza at the CUplex.
All in all, Samborski’s report was a positive one, but January was not all good news.
Councillor Ryan Bater asked about the situation at the outdoor ice rinks in the wake of the unseasonable spring-like temperatures that happened in January.
Samborski confirmed the plus-temperatures had, in fact, destroyed them.
Initially when the warm weather hit in mid-January, it looked like the rinks might hold up in spite of the melt going on. “It started off as ‘holy smokes, we dodged a big bullet here’,” said Samborski.
The next day around 4:30 p.m., he looked at them again and “there was virtually nothing left.”
Last week, he told council, members of the department were out at the outdoor rinks trying to recover them so they could be used again, but Samborski noted the recent bout of snow set them back again. He urges caution at the outdoor rinks in the city for the time being.
“Folks have to be really careful if using the outdoor rinks right now. We just haven’t been able to build up the thickness to where they should be.”
