Public engagement looms for Sportsplex

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/07/2023 (1053 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Public engagement on the future of the Sportsplex is coming next month ahead of a final decision by Brandon City Council in September.

During a special meeting held after the regular city council session on Monday, Brandon’s manager of recreation, Heather Reimer, provided a timeline of the issues experienced with the facility’s ice plant and how long it could take to solve them.

“Since the closure of the ice plant, our residents have expressed their concern for the loss of the arena,” Reimer said.

“To date, no decision has been made on the future of the Sportsplex arena space. Instead, a pause has been taken until September 2023 while a recreation needs assessment is completed and recommendations made to council.”

In March, the city abruptly closed the Sportsplex’s ice surface due to issues with the ice plant.

It had originally been hoped repairs could be made by the end of June, but the cost and timing of the repairs prompted the city to keep the arena closed through the end of the winter 2023-24 season.

The city had already been considering the future of the facility and is now waiting for a consulting firm to complete a study into what residents want to see from refreshed Sportsplex before making a decision.

Reimer explained that even if the city chooses the cheaper option of completing repairs to the existing ice plant, it is old enough that it does not meet current provincial standards.

The province will grant an exemption to keep it running if repairs are made, but only until September 2025. That would mean at that point, the plant would have to be replaced entirely if the city wants to keep operating the ice surface.

The price of repairs is estimated to be more than $350,000 while a total replacement of the ice plant would cost more than $1 million. However, Reimer said other renovations would likely take place at the same time if a full replacement is ordered.

Another possibility is that the city decides not to continue operating an ice surface and chooses another feature to take its place identified through public consultations.

If the repair route is chosen, the timeline for reopening the ice arena would be June 2024. A complete ice plant replacement would lead to reopening in October 2024.

“To me, a $350,000 investment to get this thing up and running as soon as possible to get another year and a half or out of it, even if we have to replace things, that’s where we have to go,” Coun. Shawn Berry (Ward 7) said. “We spend money on a lot worse things than keeping a facility like this going.”

Because of the situation, Reimer said that plans to renovate the Sportsplex canteen have been put on hold.

Earlier this year, the Sun reported that the city was looking for a new chiller, two condensers, oil drain valve and pressure relief valves. Repairs also had to be made to an existing brine pump and intake dampers.

When the originally city solicited bids for repairs, Reimer said just one was submitted and did not include pricing for a chiller as requested in an addendum.

That bid listed the base cost of the repairs at $350,000, with potential further expenses down the road. The timeline for the repairs was said to be 32 weeks, which would mean they wouldn’t be complete until January 2024 if they had been pursued at the time.

It would have been most of the way through the hockey season, after local groups would already have booked their ice time.

Speaking to the Sun by phone on Tuesday, the city’s general manager of operations, Patrick Pulak, said the decision to close the ice arena came after detection equipment on site detected elevated levels of ammonia.

Ammonia is used in the ice-making process but can be deadly if not handled properly. Pulak said the city didn’t want a repeat of a 2017 incident in Fernie, B.C., where three workers were killed by exposure to ammonia from a leak in a component at the community arena’s ice plant.

Reimer’s timeline stated that a need for a new ice plant had been identified through a study done in 2021. The original plan had been to budget for the design of a new plant in 2023 and the work to replace it the year following.

When the J&G Homes Arena opened in the RM of Cornwallis — just across the road from the border with Brandon — in 2021 combined with COVID-19 related factors, Reimer said the Sportsplex arena lost $150,000 in business, equivalent to a roughly 30 per cent drop in revenue.

So far, the consultants have met with several local stakeholder groups.

In the next few weeks, Reimer said an online survey will be launched for residents to provide feedback through.

There will also be an open house event held at the Sportsplex in August as well as multiple pop-up events.

With the ice surface closed, staff normally assigned to maintain and run it are being retasked for other duties.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark