Cowichan Valley's delight and pleasure – that big hockey stick – threatened by U.S. city with an even bigger stick

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Is the Cowichan Valley going to let Lockport, Illinois, snatch the title of House of the World’s Largest Hockey Stick away from Vancouver Island? From Canada?

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Space residents will get an opportunity to weigh in on that query if the Cowichan Valley Regional District agrees to a advisable survey about the way forward for the stick.

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Estimated alternative prices might be “upwards of a number of million {dollars}” relying on the design, building materials and timeline, workers mentioned in a report back to a current assembly of the Cowichan Neighborhood Centre committee.

The stick has been mounted since 1988 on the Cowichan Neighborhood Centre, co-owned by Duncan and the Cowichan Valley Regional District and situated simply contained in the North Cowichan border.

Lockport — inhabitants 26,000 — is eager to win bragging rights with a stick of 76 metres, which might surpass the Cowichan stick’s 62.5 metres.

The group southwest of Chicago would mount the stick on a deliberate 71,000-square-foot ice facility that includes two NHL regulation-size ice rinks.

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It’s no secret that the Cowichan stick, weighing in at 28,118 kilograms, wants upgrading.

Ongoing upkeep and intensive repairs within the early 2000s prolonged the lifetime of the hockey stick, however the construction of the stick is displaying proof of superior decay, a workers report says.

Final 12 months, a woodpecker tried to arrange home within the stick by punching holes in it, though the fowl ultimately moved on.

A marketing consultant mentioned the regional district ought to both plan for vital renovations or alternative by 2025.

The stick was initially commissioned by the federal authorities and featured on the entrance to the Canadian pavilion at Expo ‘86 in Vancouver.

Greater than 30 different communities entered a contest for the stick, however the World’s Largest Hockey Stick Society raised $150,000 to deliver it to Vancouver Island.

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The society transferred the keep on with the regional district in 1994. The Guinness Guide of World Data decided it was the biggest hockey stick and puck in 2008.

“It’s undoubtedly a degree of delight for the group in Duncan,” mentioned Mind Cant, vice-president of enterprise impression and engagement with 4VI, previously Tourism Vancouver Island. “That is amongst a set of beloved roadside points of interest.”

Vancouver Island has different quirky points of interest. Port McNeill was house to the World’s Largest Burl, just lately broken when it was set on fireplace. In 2019, the almost eight-metre-tall Howard the Gnome was relocated from Nanoose Bay to Galey Farms in Saanich.

Choices for the regional district embrace modifying the stick’s help system, changing current supplies, constructing a brand new stick, making it bigger, or not changing it.

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Some regional district board members instructed early this 12 months that the stick might simply be prolonged.

The estimated alternative price got here in final 12 months at between $1.5 million and $2 million, though that might possible improve within the subsequent couple of years as a consequence of anticipated building price escalation and inflation, the workers report mentioned.

A capital reserve fund stands at about $3.37 million, however a lot of that’s designated for a roof alternative for the group centre.

“Time is of the essence” due to the time it could take to run a public engagement course of and the 2025 deadline, the workers report mentioned.

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