Bridgewater, Va. – The B-REC contract between Bridgewater College and the Town of Bridgewater has been grandfathered through April 30, allowing students to mini-golf for free at Sandy Bottom Park.

Mini-golf, which opened for the season on April 2, will be open Friday-Sunday, 12 p.m.-10 p.m., during the month of April. The par-3 course at Sandy Bottom Park is open daily 6 a.m to dark. 

The three-year contract, which was set to expire on Dec. 31, 2020, has been extended twice to allow students to ice skate at Generations Park and to mini-golf at Sandy Bottom Park free of charge. The college and the town will revisit the contract at the beginning of the Fall 2021 semester. 

“Come the next fall semester, we’ll all have a better sense of if everyone’s coming back to campus,” said Town of Bridgewater Parks Coordinator Tess Croy. “If the school decides to renew it, it makes more sense to say the money’s not just for 150 students, it’s for all of the students to actually utilize.”

According to Assistant Dean of Students Whitney Smith, one of the challenges in renewing the contract has been considering how Covid-19 has affected student use of the B-REC facilities, which include ice skating, mini-golf, par-3 and the Will Tennis Center.

Last year, when Generations Park was open from November 2019 to March 2020, 584 students used the ice skating rink for free. This year, 167 students used the rink from November 2020 to March 2021. Similarly, 802 students played mini-golf at Sandy Bottom Park from April to October 2019, compared to 349 from when mini-golf opened on July 1, 2020 through October 2020. 

“As a freshman, the mini-golf course was a great opportunity to meet new people and build relationships,” said sophomore Ben Riddle. “Two years later, I still believe it to be a great tool that our community can use to grow closer together. If the contract were to be renewed, I think students would have more reason to enjoy it and use it to create strong bonds with other people.” 

The college is using this time to consider how to approach the contract in light of Covid-19, as well as to assess how students are using the B-REC facilities, according to Smith. 

“That gives us some time to really look at our contract, and so part of that is just for me to figure out how do students want to interact with B-REC at Bridgewater?” said Smith.

The poll below will be used by Student Life to better understand how students use the B-REC facilities and what they would like to see in the future.  

Campus Rec will be hosting a “Beat Your Best” competition April 9-11 and April 16-18. Students can submit their mini-golf scores on MyBC for a chance to win an intramural t-shirt or a $25 shopping spree to the Campus Store.