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Numerous people enjoyed the terrain park at the Kinsmen Ski and Snowboard Centre. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)
Safety Risk

Kinsmen Ski and Snowboard Centre urge public to stay off river ice

Jan 2, 2020 | 5:08 PM

The Kinsmen Ski and Snowboard Centre are reminding people that walking on the river ice at Little Red River Park is dangerous.

The reminder came in the form of a Facebook post on Dec. 31.

Operations Manager, Nathan Stregger, told paNOW the reason why it’s not safe is because the water is flowing and freezes differently throughout.

“There’s open spots on that river still and there’s spots that are like a foot thick, so it depends where on the river you are,” he said. “It’s not a lake and I don’t think people realize that.”

He said they normally have a sign warning people of the ice but added it’s usually not a problem because people use their “common sense.” On the Facebook post they explained the public should respect the staff when asked politely to leave the ice for their own safety.

Stregger said there was a situation recently where a man was on the ice with his two children. Stregger saw them and asked the trio to leave the ice.

“All we were doing was trying to keep him and his kids who were also on the ice, so I thought I’d let the public know,” Stregger said. “It’s unsafe. I’ve personally seen three people fall through in my 15 years here and there have been quite a few more.”

Luckily, he said no one has been injured.

Ian.gustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @iangustafson12

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