The community of New Bothwell has a brand new outdoor skating rink and the local councillor has a grand idea for how to officially open it.

Travis Doerksen says they will be hosting a hockey tournament there on January 14th. And teams will be made up from each of the wards in the Rural Municipality of Hanover. There will be eight teams in total. The six wards will each have a team, plus Hanover Administration will be icing a team and Reeve Jim Funk will be responsible for putting together a team as well.

Doerksen says there was a lot of shock and some raised eyebrows after councillors were "voluntold."

"I don't want to spite any of our councillors but some of them aren't young bucks anymore," he chuckles.

Doerksen says Hanover communities are rich with hockey talent and each ward should have a lot of players to choose from. Each councillor may only select players that live in their ward. 

"I just thought it was just an exciting way to get council out and administration and to get the people from Hanover excited and a chance for everybody in Hanover to come and join the day with us," he adds.

The tournament will be a round-robin format, with the first game taking place at 9:30 am. Teams will be split into two groups with the gold medal game scheduled for under the lights at 5:45 pm. 

According to Doerksen, the tournament will be part of a fun day for the family on January 14th. He says there will be a full canteen that day, with children able to use the toboggan slide and hopefully an outdoor fire going as well. 

"Just a great way to come and meet your councillor, meet the RM staff and just a great day," notes Doerksen. "Just a time to celebrate something awesome in our municipality."

Doerksen says the new outdoor rink will end up costing somewhere between $220,000 and $230,000. That amount is right where they expected it to be when they first broke ground. 

He notes they are anticipating a busy Christmas season for the new rink with a lot of rentals already planned for over the holidays.