The Editor,
Coquitlam’s Recreation, Parks and Culture Department is not considering the interests of the curlers in their proposal to evict us from the complex in March 2017. The Sports User Group of the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex supported us to begin with, then changed its mind and supported the proposal to have us curl at Port Moody until a new rink is built.
The president of the Port Moody Curling Club has told us it cannot accommodate all of our curlers. If our club becomes fragmented, we may cease to exist and there would be no point in building the new facility.
The curlers of the Coquitlam Curling Association are thus faced with a very difficult decision. If we agree to go along with the proposal of leaving Poirier and the city building us a new facility near city hall by 2019, our current schools program for this year, which will give 2,200 students in the Poirier area an opportunity to try curling, will be gone for good next year. For that reason, I support staying in our present facility until we can work something out to continue our schools program.
In closing, if the parks and rec department is so concerned about the cost to the municipality for curling, why has it continued to give us some of the lowest rates for curling in the Lower Mainland and proposed that we be evicted for not paying our share of the costs of operations?
Dale Gregory, President, Senior Men’s and Friday Masters
