Upgrade work at the athletic rink at Pembroke Community Centre is on course for a November 3 opening.Providing an update this week, Mike Daly, president of the Bermuda Inline Hockey League, said work was going well with the next major task being the levelling of the surface and laying of the tiles by the end of next week.“The boards are totally up now as well as the fencing,” said Daly. ‘We are in the process of levelling off the surface to make it as flat as we can before we lay the tiles. We will finish the levelling off this weekend and then start laying the tiles next week or next weekend, to have it done by Sunday, the 29th.“The players’ benches and the penalty box area are totally done, we’ve done a lot of landscaping along the side to level off the grounds outside the rink. The biggest thing right now is to make sure we have a level surface in order to put down the interlocking tiles. We want to take our time to make sure the playing surface is as level as we can get it, it’s important that is done properly.“The actual laying of the tiles will only take about two days and we’re planning on getting a crew there of volunteers and the Kids Inline, Men’s Inline and the Ball Hockey League are all going to contribute. We have a large team to put everything in place.”The completed facility will be available for multiple sports and improved lights will also be installed. An estimated $42,000 in additional funding is needed to complete the project which has a total estimated cost of $287,000 with $244,400 raised so far.“People are very enthused about the rink and the multi-purpose nature of the rink,” said Daly. “With the boards and chain-link fencing all up they can really see a good product and what it is going to look like. People are impressed by the quality of the boards and how good the surface is going to be. We’re very pleased so far.”On the playing side, inline hockey will start on November 3 and so far some 94 children were signed up during recent registration, compared to 118 last year of whom 65 percent were Bermudian. That was up from 54 percent the previous year when 146 youngsters participated.Daly is hoping final registration numbers will be in the 130 range for the season. The BIHL’s “learn to skate” programme is geared towards brand new skaters, generally five to eight years old, who learn to develop their skills through the basic fundamentals of skating. He is confident a new facility will help increase interest.“The grand opening is November 24 and we want to make sure the landscaping is done and the lights are up by then,” said Daly. “We will be able to skate on the new surface and use the facility on November 3 but we probably won’t have lights and have it fully landscaped. A lot of sports are going to use it.”Parents wishing to register their children (ages 4-16) can do so online at www.bihl.bm and anyone wishing to make a corporate or private donation can do so by contacting Daly at 505-8300.