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Icy conundrum
Friday August 15 2008
 
Imagine for a moment you are the owner of a late model car with say, 300,000 kilometres on it.  The car has been costing you a small fortune in repairs in recent years but you don’t have the means to afford a new vehicle.
What do you do? Take out a loan you can’t afford? Continue to pay the costly repair bills in order to keep the car, which you desperately need, on the road?
Well, the same situation is facing the Town when it comes to the future of Memorial Arena— an 86-year-old ice rink which has surpassed its normal life expectancy by a whopping 35 years.
The rink is desperately needed to meet the demands for ice time for local youth programs (a participation rate indicates the town is currently short 1.5 ice surfaces) however, the cost to keep the building in operation has skyrocketed in recent years. Building a new facility is out of the question as there is no money available in the Town coffers for a project that undoubtedly would cost $15 million or more.
At Monday’s council meeting, members backed a staff report recommending allocating money for minimum building repairs to keep the rink operating for the next 10 years. A total of $1 million will be built into the 2009 budget and forecast to ensure repairs for the next four years— with the hope no major emergency repairs are required in that time period.
“I have a real genuine concern, not only in regard to the lifespan of this building but also in the planning for a building to replace it,” said Councillor Bryan Lewis, somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to ice rinks, considering his past career as a professional referee.
How outdated is Memorial? Lewis, in pointing to a report that has studied the life expectancy of each component of the building from its structure to its mechancial systems, notes that it is no longer even possible to get replacement parts for the aging seats (circa 1964).
A private-public sector partnership is one possible route to a new facility, but in these uncertain economic conditions that possibility seems remote at best. In hindsight perhaps this is an avenue that should have been explored years ago?
Now, with little alternative, the Town may simply be throwing good money after bad to keep the kids on the ice.