Future of Curling at Roseland Golf and Curling Club under review

Chair of the Roseland Golf and Curling Club Coun. Gary Kaschak is confident public input will help curling find a permanent home.

“It's a possibility it stays at Roseland. It's a possibility it gets repurposed somewhere else,” said Kascha.

Either way, he says curling is going to be a multi-million dollar expenditure, one council will be discussing at length.

To find the right place at the right cost, the city released a 14-question survey late Thursday afternoon looking for public input on the sport.

“That shows good faith,” said Terry Fink, a committee member on a group for The Future of Curling Windsor-Essex.

The survey does raise an eyebrow with Fink who wonders about a question asking which ice hockey rink would the public prefer for curling if Roseland wasn't an option financially.

“That is the only option that they're suggesting is an arena and we were hoping that through this process there would be an investigation of a number of alternatives,” Fink said.

One alternative Fink would like to explore is the idea of the city building a curling rink that would ultimately be run by the curling club.

“Almost like they do the lawn bowling,” Fink points out. “The facility is there. They've turned over the operation to the lawn bowlers.”

Kashak says that could be an option.

“We've asked those groups to bring us a business plan forward and you know, they're going to need some money attached to that business plan to do that moving forward,” he said. “If they finally do that we could be potentially interested in that type of an arrangement.”

Gail Robertson is relatively new to the sport and doesn't feel the survey is not focused on getting the right information.

“I looked at the survey and I'm like I curl a bit so I have an understanding but I think we need to make sure we're asking the right questions,” she said.

The survey is available online until May 25. A public information session is set for May 18 from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. at Roseland. The results of both will be shared in a report to council for discussion.