TORONTO -- In what could be called a Christmas truce, two Ottawa neighbours have come to an amicable understanding over a front-yard hockey rink that made national headlines last year.
A year after a neighbour complained about Cory Cosgrove’s makeshift hockey rink for his children, the two parties have agreed Cosgrove can put it up again -- without a fuss this time.
“We went over and spoke to the neighbour and came to a nice understanding that it’s something that we’d like to do and they agreed that they were OK with it,” Cosgrove told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.
“The rink has been up for a couple weeks … it looks nicer than it did last year and that was the issue last year.”
Shortly before the holidays last year, Cosgrove was surprised to get a visit from a bylaw officer, who told him his front-yard rink and the boards surrounding it had ruffled his neighbour’s feathers and had to be taken down.
The relevant bylaw is typically only enforced if someone complains to the city.
“There was a guy last year with an identical -- if not uglier (rink) than mine -- and it was there all winter because no one complained,” Cosgrove laughed.
At the time, fellow neighbours -- who supported the Cosgroves -- said the complainer was the “Grinch.” Even Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson tweeted: “We are a hockey nation and what can be wrong with playing hockey in your own backyard?”
Although the Cosgroves took down the boards for the rink, there was a groundswell of support from Canadians from across the country, as well as people from different corners of the world.
To keep the peace, the family said they wanted to take the high road and not reveal the complainer’s name. But this December, Cosgrove said they “didn’t want a repeat of last year.”=
Over the summer, the family and the neighbour had been cordial with each other. So when winter came around, Cosgrove and his wife felt comfortable telling the neighbour they wanted to build a rink again.
The neighbour supported that and the rink was up that afternoon.
COSGROVES' NEW RINK WAS SENT FROM U.S.
At the height of last year’s dispute, the story reached the ears of a U.S. businessman who was in a position to help.
Jim Stoller, president of Wisconsin-based company NiceRink which sells premade hockey rink kits, heard about the Cosgroves’ plight, reached out to the family and sent them a free kit last December.
“I thought let’s just get this taken care of and get their neighbours off their back and let’s just move forward,” he told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.
But the Cosgroves didn’t get a chance to use until this year.
Stoller, a former minor league hockey player who briefly competed in Quebec, was thrilled at the lack of hoopla this time around.
“Hey, in the end, a nice story’s a nice story,” he said, recalling how much he loved homemade rinks when he played as a child.
Cosgrove was happy that “instead of having 2x12s which I was using … it looks like a mini-hockey rink with white boards and yellow bumper caps.” He said he hopes to rebuild the rink for years to come.
“I’ll do it as long as my kids want to. My kids are on it every night so as long as they’re happy going on it, I’ll keep doing it,” he said.
Nowadays, he gets recognized for the rink or jokes with family and friends about last year’s fiasco. “But they’re just surprised and supportive and it’s a bit of a joke,” he said.
Cosgrove laughs recalling someone even introducing him to a friend by saying: “‘Oh, this is the rink guy.’”
