Owen Weiss: Welcome to Clayton News Network. I’m Owen Weiss, and we’re joined here today by Ms. Toni Siering of Clayton Parks and Recreation. How’s it going?

Toni Siering: I’m great. How are you?

Owen Weiss: I’m great. So a few weeks ago, I spoke with Mayor McAndrew, and she mentioned the possibility of plans for temporary ice this winter. Where do you stand on that, and what are the plans, if any, for ice this winter?

Toni Siering: I have not heard that of that. So I’m not aware of any plans to have temporary ice this winter. Um, if someone were to to tell me that we could do that, that we had the budget for that, um, I would be, uh, all for that if, like, a temporary vendor came in, set it up, manned it, um, because we don’t have anybody right now who would any staff available that would be like rink guards or cashiers, things like that. So I guess it would depend on the circumstance, but it would be something I would be interested in.

Owen Weiss: Yeah. And I actually. Right when you said that, I just got an idea. you could maybe have, like, high schoolers do it to get credit for volunteer hours.

Toni Siering: Well, yeah. No, that’s, in the past, we often had students that were rink guards and cashiers, so that could be something we could, uh, we could definitely look into.

Owen Weiss: Another question I had I know that funding like, is and like was an issue. So

Toni Siering: (Yes.)

Owen Weiss: What are ways that Clayton citizens could pitch in to, like, help fund this and it happen?

Toni Siering: Yeah, no, so we are in the infancy, so the very beginning stages of the design for what could happen at that site after

Owen Weiss: (Mhm.)

Toni Siering: we, design that and get everything, get some public input, get input from the Parks and Rec commission, the board of Aldermen, now called the city council. Um, you know, we would, then turn over the fundraising aspect of that to the Clayton Community Foundation or CCF. They would be spearheading any fundraising efforts, um, once the project is designed to completion.

Owen Weiss: What would that like look like?

Toni Siering: The newly designed project?

Owen Weiss: Well, like fundraising.

Toni Siering: Okay.

Owen Weiss: If you have any idea of what that would be like.

Toni Siering: I have a little bit of an idea, so, really, like I said, we want to get a design of the project so we can get an overall cost. Um, I know that, um, you know, people are looking for the, the ice rink that was, uh, developed or pitched before Covid. Um, this will be something very different from that. It’ll be much smaller. It’ll be a temporary ice rink. It will not necessarily be a year-round indoor building. Um, so we want to get the cost of what this is going to be. And then once we determine that the city is paying for the design phase, then CCF will be. This will spearhead the fundraising phase, and I’m assuming, um, not that I know one hundred percent, but I’m assuming they’ll be looking for not only individual community donors, but also corporate donors as well, with possibly naming rights for the area.

Owen Weiss: Right. So the mayor also mentioned that she did tell me that you guys, were in like, the designing phase. So, what is that new facility going to be used for

Toni Siering: It’s going to look a little bit different than what we had proposed in the past. So we’re just embarking on this right now, and really, we’re in the development stage. Um, and what you know, we like to think that it’s going to be a transformative project that will really, um, obviously transform the site where the former ice rink was at. So we’re looking at, um, some ideas that are currently being floated around is like a central gathering space. So obviously, the current or what was the former ice rink slab is now currently temporary pickleball courts. That

Owen Weiss: Ya.

Toni Siering: would all go away. We would add new courts, new pickleball courts, somewhere in that site. But the main, um, the main emphasis would be a central gathering space that we could use in the summer and the fall for concerts, for community events, for farmers markets, maybe food truck events, and then in the winter, it would include a temporary ice rink, or maybe even an ice ribbon in the winter months, so we could activate that site year round. Um, it could include some of the things we’ve been talking about are, um, a stage for performances um, shade structures, so that there place for people to keep cool in the summer months. Um, we’ll have comfort stations, which is what we lovingly refer to as restrooms, um, and pickleball courts. And then like, um, an overall lawn type area so people can gather for, um, food and beverage. They can bring their own chairs, they could listen to music, or if it is like a farmers market event, you know, walk around with different tents and things like that.

Owen Weiss: That’s really cool. Um, so in the winter, like, what’s the likelihood of having special community events, like, for example, like Christmas tree lightings or just special days of, like, winter-themed games for kids to, like,

Toni Siering: I

Owen Weiss: play?

Toni Siering: Think there’s, yeah, I think that’s a really, uh, high probability of things like that. And we don’t generally do like a Christmas tree events. We try to stay away from secular or religious events. But

Owen Weiss: Yeah.

Toni Siering: Certainly, like you might remember at the old ice rink, we always had skate with frosty. So that

Owen Weiss: Um.

Toni Siering: Definitely, I think, um, I, we would definitely want to activate that site in the winter to include, yeah, winter events maybe. Um, obviously not this year, but maybe in the future we could have things that revolve around the Winter Olympics or other snow, snow day type activities that we could activate that site, um, with hot chocolate, maybe temporary fire pits, things like that as well too, because we really want the site because it is so visible from Brentwood to be activated year round. And one of the things we also talked about is having a gathering space, uh, that would also have food and beverage as well too. And that could be year round as well with like patio heaters things like that.

Owen Weiss: Yeah, these are really cool ideas that actually are new to me. Um, but what’s funny, you mentioned hot chocolate, and that’s

Toni Siering: (Mhm.)

Owen Weiss: Probably that’s been mentioned so many times as one of people’s most favorite things about the old ice skating rink was the hot chocolate.

Toni Siering: Yeah.

Owen Weiss: Um,

Toni Siering: That’s funny.

Owen Weiss: as well as like the fire pit and just

Toni Siering: (Mhm.)

Owen Weiss: Other things because I think this, but so do a lot of other people. There aren’t really too many things where people can engage as a community together, and

Toni Siering: (Mhm.)

Owen Weiss: That’s why a lot of people really are hoping for something cool to be here.

Toni Siering: Yeah. No. And that’s that’s really our goal. We want this to be a community space. So it could be multi-use. Like I said, it could be, um. Small concerts or maybe even, depending on the size, we might be able to relocate some of the other events that are on the streets of downtown Clayton to this spot. Um, albeit maybe they look a little bit different, the jazz festival, things like that. Um, but again, things that we could do where people could gather year-round, you know, maybe you play, uh, tennis or you’re playing sand volleyball. You could walk over to the garden area and have some snacks and have some, uh, refreshments, things like that. So, um, we are looking at this to be a year-round event all

Owen Weiss: Um,

Toni Siering: year-round space.

Owen Weiss: So I feel like normally when we get these things like that are supposed to be for, like, community building, they end up kind of just like being ignored. So do you think there’s a way that we can prevent that from happening?

Toni Siering: Yeah, I think honestly, because of, I think it’s location, um, it is going to be front and center, really at the gateway entrance to our flagship park. Shaw Park is our biggest park in Clayton. Um, it is the crown jewel of our park system. So I think because of its location in Shaw Park and within Shaw Park on Brentwood Boulevard, it will be high profile. So I really, truly believe that it will not be forgotten about, or it will not go stale.

Owen Weiss: I was really good to hear. What age groups would this be for?

Toni Siering: I think it’s going to be for all ages. I think, um, depending on the event, obviously, you know, a jazz festival might draw, um, a more adult crowd, but we certainly do, you know, for Parks and Recreation, we specialize in events for families and kids of all ages. So we would certainly be interested in having, um, more family-themed events or kid-themed events there, depending on what happens with, you know, how the temporary ice is situated. You know, we could we certainly would intend to have events like skate with Frosty and things that are more family-oriented, as well as adult or tween-oriented as well. We’re we’re looking at all sorts of different programs, programming ideas, and we’ve been kind of looking around the country just to see what people are doing with spaces like this.

Owen Weiss: That’s really nice, because I feel like there’s not a lot of stuff for people like me to do in Clayton besides just wandering around.

Toni Siering: Right. And we want that to be, um, a safe public space for everybody to come and enjoy. Like I said, all, all different seasons.

Owen Weiss: Well, um, that is all the questions I have for you. Uh, do you have any questions for me?

Toni Siering: Well, I did want to say, um, that, uh, the consulting group that we’ve been working with, Lamar Johnson Collaborative, will be presenting to the Parks and Rec Commission next Monday evening, December 1st. Um, the meetings are hybrid, so you can join either online or here in person at the Center of Clayton. But they’re going to be presenting some of our initial ideas just to get some input from the Parks and Rec Commission and any public that would be there as well. If you wanted to check out some of those, um, first stage designs that we’re going to be we’re going to be sharing.

Owen Weiss: That would be really cool. I’ll watch out

Toni Siering: Yeah.

Owen Weiss: for that.

Toni Siering: Yeah, definitely. I think it’ll be our first gauge into the public forum to see if we are hitting the mark and, uh, and hitting the target for what people want.

Owen Weiss: All right. Well, thank you so much for joining me today.

Toni Siering: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for having me.

Owen Weiss: This was a lot of good new information I got.

Toni Siering: Yeah, we’re really looking forward to it. And we think it’ll be a really cool project to showcase not only Shaw Park, but the city of Clayton.

Owen Weiss: I think I can speak for everyone when I say we’re all very excited to see what happens.

Toni Siering: That’s great news. That’s great news. We’re looking forward to it.

Owen Weiss: All right. Thank you so much.

Toni Siering: You’re welcome. Have a great day.

Owen Weiss: You, too. Thank you so much for tuning in to yet another episode of Clayton News Network. We hope to see you soon. And before I let you go, I actually do have to make sure you follow, leave a comment on again your thoughts on ice skating, and leave us a five-star review. Thank you so much, and have an amazing rest of your week.

Owen Weiss: Uh, feel free to click off of this. It’s going to continue for another 20s.

Owen Weiss: Ten more seconds. I don’t know why you’re still here. It’s literally just this song the whole time.

Owen Weiss: Wow, you actually listened till the end. Good job. You get a gold star. Um, if you comment that you listened to the end. Um, I’ll. I’ll give you a shout-out in the next episode. Okay. bye.