Sportsplex ice reopening date now Sept. 2025
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/09/2024 (390 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Brandon City Council granted final approval to $6.36 million in upgrades to the Sportsplex arena on Tuesday, a project that includes the replacement of the defunct ice plant.
The new estimated date for the arena’s ice surface reopening for public use is September 2025.
The ice rink has been closed since March 2023 because of safety concerns over potential ammonia leaks, which can be fatal under certain circumstances.
After public consultations over the future of the venue, council ultimately decided to replace rather than repair the ice plant as the existing plant’s exemption from provincial safety requirements is scheduled to expire in September 2025.
This year’s city budget set aside around $4 million for the replacement.
However, it was later determined that the concrete pad the ice surface sits on as well as cooling lines beneath it and the facility’s ventilation system needed to be replaced as well, as they no longer meet current building codes.
On top of that, the city is also looking to install new dasher boards and complete interior painting.
When the project was put out to tender, the lowest bid from T.L. Penner Construction came in at $6,362,796 — more than $2.3 million overbudget.
In July, a public hearing was held on a bylaw authorizing the borrowing of up to $3.5 million and now the city is waiting for Manitoba’s Municipal Board to grant its final approval. This is a necessary step since that amount was not in the 2024 budget.
While the city is waiting for the board’s approval, it is earmarking funds from four reserves to award the project tender: $600,000 from the gas-tax reserve, $700,000 from the Sportsplex reserve, $700,000 from the capital-development reserve and $700,000 from the fiscal-contingency reserve.
Should the Municipal Board reject the city’s borrowing application, the extra funds for the project will be drawn from those sources.
The city’s director of finance, Troy Tripp, said the board’s decision may not arrive until late October or early November. He added that he thinks the chance of a rejection is “miniscule at this point in time.”
“In the event that the Municipal Board did not approve the borrowing, it would put a little bit of strain on the Sportsplex reserve, specifically, and it would mostly deplete what’s in the fiscal-contingency reserve,” Tripp said.
In September 2023, director of recreation Heather Reimer told council the hope was to have the ice surface back in commission by the end of 2024.
“The new goal is to have kids back on the ice in September of 2025,” Reimer said Tuesday.
While the project is mostly contained to the ice arena, a document attached to Tuesday’s agenda said that some minor disruptions are expected to the pool, racquetball and other facilities at the Sportsplex during construction.
» cslark@brandonsun.com
» X: @ColinSlark