Dufferin Grove Rink Problems

May, 2004: Rink Crack-up

Dufferin Rink was all new eleven years ago, re-built for $1.3 million. It's supposed to last for 30 years minimum. But this year we noticed that the concrete surface of our rink is netted with cracks. Some appear to be leaking rust; the others show a yellowish tinge when it's wet out. In our rink compressor room, some of the big pipes are badly rusted, including the bolts that would need to come off for a repair. And all last winter the coolant (brine) was leaking out somewhere under our rink surface, leading to a cliffhanger on several occasions about whether the rink was going to have to close prematurely. Finally, at the beginning of March Break, all the ammonia escaped out of the compressor room ammonia tank in one night. That's when we found out that the rink's alarm system, such as it is, is not monitored by anyone. The rink was then closed.

What caused the cracks, the rust, the yellow, the ammonia escape, the brine leaks? We don't know much, since most of the parks mechanics prefer not to talk. They did say that about 80 gallons of brine were lost daily during the winter because someone had drilled a 2mm hole in the cement and hit a pipe (this was discovered in April). The city mechanics deduced that someone in the community must have done it, maybe as part of some performance or activity on the rink in summer. (But in fact there was no such performance or activity on the rink). A mystery.

Other than that, the city mechanics almost never communicate with the rink house staff - they just go in and out of the compressor room, living in their own bubble. (The park phone is plugged into a jack in the compressor room, and recently when the phone stopped working we found it had been unplugged in there. A couple of days later it was unplugged again, and when we opened the compressor room door to replace the jack again, some barrels fell on us, which had been propped up against the door. Dirty tricks? We have no idea. Chilly climate? For sure.)

In this troubled context, seven friends of the rink wrote a letter asking the parks management to get an outside rink inspection done by CIMCO, the refrigeration company that supplies the city's equipment (and also services the city rinks in Etobicoke). We wanted a prognosis on the rink for next winter, and the winters after that. However, the request was denied by Bob Crump (head of Technical Services) and Parks director Don Boyle. City Councillor Adam Giambrone did not support our request either, and we've asked him to let us know his reasons in a letter. We'll post the letter when it arrives.

The rink cracks are beginning to collect dirt, and where there's dirt there may eventually be flowers. If the Parks department doesn't want to act on this problem, maybe someone in the neighbourhood knows about steps we can take to keep the rink surface from beginning to break up. Should the cracks be hosed down to remove the dirt? Is there a sealant? If you know what to do or you have a savvy concrete contact, please call the park at 416 392-0913, or e-mail us at rinks@dufferinpark.ca. This information would be useful for applying to Christie Rink, Campbell Rink, and Trinity Rink as well, all of which, even though they're newer than our rink, have begun to show cracks. These newer rinks are all cooled by brine. The older rinks in our area, still cooled directly by ammonia, don't have these cracks. A mystery, which needs to explored SOON.

For more on events around the time of the rink closing, see City Rink Archives, 2004 and Rink Stories 2004. For some grief we had earlier in the year, see The Inspector Crisis, 2003.

June, 2004: Correspondence about our rink problems

May 20: Letter from Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone to Mr. Kershaw, Capital Works section of Parks in Economic Development.

posted June 1, 2004

... The issue is that cracks have appeared on the concrete slab that holds the ice in many of the newly constructed rinks. Reportedly, "Alex Duff rink has long cracks that traverse the slab from one side to the other. ... Many of the cracks (in all the newer rinks) are straight lines that run parallel or at right angles, and they are stained yellowish or, in a few places, red like rust. It's a mystery, especially since the older rinks (the ones that are not cooled by brine but by ammonia) don't have those cracks" ... Read more >>

May 20: Letter from the Friends of Dufferin Grove Park to Mr. Steve McCloud, President, CIMCO

posted June 1, 2004

... This past winter we had a persistent brine leak that was diagnosed, after the ice went out, as being caused by a 2mm drill hole in one of the pipes. Because I was puzzled about the drill hole, I looked at the rink more carefully than I have before. I was surprised to see that the concrete pad had so many long cracks ... Read more >>

Rink problems - correspondence with the City, May 2004

posted June 1, 2004

Our rink-related correspondence with Toronto City Councillor Adam Giambrone and with Bob Crump, the manager of Technical Services for Parks and recreation, South District (i.e. the former city of Toronto). Read more >>

June, 2004: CIMCO (the rink company) says cracks "no problem"

From the June 2004 Newsletter

As this newsletter was ready to print, City Councillor Adam Giambrone's assistant Kevin Beaulieu called to say that a concrete expert from CIMCO (the rink company) called him to say that he had dropped in at our rink on his way by and he's pleased to tell him that the many cracks in our rink are no problem at all. Also, Councillor Giambrone wrote to let us know that the technical services manager has assured him that all our concerns have been flagged for follow-up during the Dufferin Grove inspection, including the cracks in the cement, the reinforced sinking floor, the rust and the leaking of brine last season. He expects that a city-wide rink inspection will come to our rink in late summer.

In the meantime, Liz Rucker will be doing a special storytelling session at the June 4 Friday night supper about the rink cracks. It's an adventure story and an art project around the cracks in the rink, called "rivers of the world." Kids will get indelible markers so they can draw on the concrete around their favourite rink crack (lots and lots and lots of choices), and they'll get a sneak peak at the workings of the rink too. Starts right after supper, at about 6:45p.m.

July, 2004: The Rink Mystery, continued: City Wide Study Comes First

From the July 2004 Newsletter

On July 5 the city councillors who are members of the Economic Development and Parks Committee took less than two minutes to approve $800,000 to pay engineers to check out the condition of all Parks and Recreation facilities. They call it "due diligence," which sounds very sensible. But here's a problem: later the same morning the same councillors met to approve a new Strategic Plan for Parks and Rec, and that plan says that most of the facilities listed in the $800,000 contract have already been inspected. (Certainly all the outdoor rinks around here have.)

Jutta Mason went up to Committee Chair Brian Ashton and Commissioner Joe Halstead after the meeting, to ask about this puzzle - which story was right? Councillor Ashton just walked away but Mr. Halstead took a moment to insist that there was no contradiction, that this inspection will be quite different than the last one. But we're mystified. We're going to get the original plans for the first inspection in 2001, and compare it to the plans for the second inspection. And if we find that the two inspections are pretty similar, we can ask the councillors to reconsider whether they really want to go over all the same ground again, or whether they would like to use that $800,000 to actually fix some things that are broken.

Like our rink cracks. Or that dirt path that forms the main thoroughfare through our park. Paving was first suggested in 1925 and it's still not done! The big and little folks in wheelchairs and strollers who bump along there, don't need an engineering study to tell them that paving would be a help. We'll follow up on this engineering study, and report back in the next issue of the newsletter.

October, 2004: The Last Word on the State of the Rink?

Dear friends of the rink and winter lovers,

You may remember that last April when the ice was all gone from Dufferin Rink, the concrete rink surface revealed many cracks, all over both sides, many of them yellow or red with rust that was leaching up through the concrete. Since the rink had already had to close early because of technical problems (including the entire compressor-room tank of ammonia evaporating into the air one night), when we saw all those long cracks, lots of us were wondering -- what next?

Good news. The cracks are most likely no problem at all. Parks and Recreation Director Don Boyle personally brought a friend of his, a cement expert, to the rink last Wednesday. Warren Bravo, a very fine-looking man with a firm handshake and cement-dusted workboots on his feet, told us he's the third generation in his family to run the business, Bravo Cement Inc.(see the early photo from their web site). He walked all around the rink with Don, area manager James Dann, Councillor Giambrone's assistant Kevin Beaulieu, and me.

This was his opinion: It's not clear what caused the cracks, but even if they get worse, they can't separate and break up. That's because the steel mesh that's slowly rusting through the cracks is also holding all the cracks together. Warren said that filling the cracks with epoxy would only be for cosmetic, not structural reasons. They sometimes have to do that: when a newly built rink in Stouffville mysteriously developed 3000 linear feet of cracks right after it was built, they ground all the cracks down and filled them and laid a thin layer of cement overtop. But they only did that so it would look perfect. Since the cost of doing such a procedure is $9 per linear foot, and we also have many linear feet of cracks, we don't even need to think about it.

So it sounds as though we have a pretty good chance to keep this rink 20 years longer, and the ice will cover up the cracks during the rink seasons.

The rink season is Nov.27 to March 20 this year. For more information on our rink hours/ details/ special events/ information numbers/ rink politics/ etc., and information on all other Toronto rinks (including a map), go to http://www.dufferinpark.ca/cityrinks/cityRinks.html. Our first winter celebration is on December 3. The occasion is not only the return of the rink, but also, this is the tenth year of cooking with fire in the park. That means music, skating by torchlight, a campfire, and very delicious food (and we think that park cook Dan DeMatteis will be back from his Italian apprenticeship).

See you at the rink!

Jutta