Murphy must live on Montgomery Road.
As Murphy’s Law states: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
For Terena and Jonathan Stegavig, there may be an even better idiom than Murphy: No good deed goes unpunished.
The Stegavigs spared no expense to build an enclosed backyard all-weather hockey rink for their children and the neighbourhood.
Every single detail in the construction of the backyard rink was designed to thwart ol’ Murphy.
The Stegavigs built a deck attached to their home and on it constructed a state-of-the-art hockey rink complete with dryland flooring, mesh safety nets and good quality boards.
The Stegavigs’ backyard rink is a hockey dream.
Enter the next pearl of wisdom.
One man’s dream is another man’s nightmare.
Most of the neighbourhood was overjoyed that not only could their youngsters play hockey instead of slapping the buttons on an X-Box, but they could do it safely and off the street.
While the game had been moved off the street where it has been played for decades, to the rink, one neighbour didn’t share this dream scenario.
Enter Murphy again.
And this time Murphy was firmly ensconced in the ivory towers of Prince Rupert city bureaucracy.
Despite the Stegavigs attention to detail and common sense, they made a mistake and didn’t get a permit from the City. Without a permit, Murphy was now able to run amok.
The next thing the Stegavigs know they are going to have to tear down the rink and build it a few feet away.
In a nutshell, the Stegavigs were the proverbial square peg in the City’s round hole. And when the bureaucrats get at it, remember precedent is the killer of common sense.
A letter-writing campaign has begun to have council reverse its kill-the-rink decision. Hopefully, Murphy can be relegated for two minutes in the penalty box for unsportsmanlike conduct while council reconsiders.
It is said that exceptions prove the rule. This would be one exception that would prove that those who rule Prince Rupert have common sense.
This is one time when Prince Rupert council has to become a square hole.
Not the other one.