There will be no outdoor rodeo this summer, despite the Jasper Heritage Rodeo Association’s efforts to bring the 88-year-old event out from under the fluorescent lights and back into the light of day.
“We approached Parks Canada and they said there just wasn’t enough time to get everything done,” the rodeo association’s Gail Lonsberry said last week, referring to finding a location and getting the event planned and set up.
This news comes less than a month after council voted to support the rodeo association with a $10,000 grant to help facilitate the move outdoors. That vote, on a motion put forward by Mayor Richard Ireland, was meant to take the heat off council and municipal staff who are hesistant to continue hosting the rodeo in the arena—where it’s been hosted for the past 33 years.
The reason for that is that the municipality wants to keep the facility clean—since it’s currently cleaner than it’s been in 50 years, following the top-to-bottom scrubbing it received after the Jan. 26 fire in the Zamboni room.
To keep it in that state, last month administration put forward four possible options for allowing the rodeo to continue in the arena—three of which would require the rodeo to pay the cost of cleaning the facility following the event.
The cost of such a cleaning—about $100,000 a year—would make it impossible for the rodeo association to carry on.
As it stands, with a $9,000 discount on its rental fee last year, the event only managed to break even.
In light of these challenges, and the fact that an outdoor event is a pipe dream for this year, the rodeo association will be in front of council again May 20, asking to use the arena—at a discounted rate—and offering to undertake some additional cleaning following the event.
“We have added some cleaning duties that we’re going to do above and beyond what we normally do, and we’ll see if that flies,” said Lonsberry, noting that the cleaning will include scrubbing the rafters, speakers and heaters over the ice surface.
She said to accomplish that, the association would only need to contract a lift, as one of the association’s members does commercial cleaning for a living and has offered to do the work following the event.
The dirt that accumulates above the ice surface was of particular concern to Peter Bridge, the municipality’s arena manager, who noted that following the rodeo, dirt falls onto the ice from above.
During the May 6 regular meeting of council, Peter Waterworth, chief administrative officer, brought council up to date, noting that the association has taken the issues around cleaning very seriously.
Lonsberry said she hopes the association’s proposal to council will be enough, and the rodeo won’t have to go on hiatus for a year.
“At this point, I guess I’m feeling as positive as I can be. I’m just hoping.”
And she’s also hoping that the comprehensive proposal the association is putting together for Parks will be successful, so that next year the rodeo can return to its roots: the outdoors.
That proposal will include diagrams for the arena, bleachers, holding area, concession stand, parking stalls and everything else that goes into hosting an outdoor event.
So far, the association has a few quotes and now it’s working on the layout of the event, so that it can present that proposal to Parks sooner rather than later.
“It’s really preliminary at this point. But they haven’t shut us down yet,” she said.
Prior to 1977, the rodeo was hosted outside at what is now Whistlers Campground.
This year’s event is scheduled for Aug. 13–16.
 Nicole Veerman
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