Fort Frances Town Council has approved the Fort Frances Lakers Junior A hockey team and the Border Skating Club to move forward with a “straight swap” of dressing rooms, bringing a resolution to concerns that have been ongoing for more than a year.
The Lakers currently have a dressing room that measures 474 square feet and have voiced their need for more space over the past several years. The team’s request for a larger space brought forth an initial discussion with the town about the possibility of moving the Lakers to the Border Skating Club’s much larger dressing room, which it has used since the Ice for Kids Arena was constructed in 2000.
The skating club was a gold sponsor in the arena’s development and was allocated a designated dressing room of 879 square feet. With the approval of the room swap, the Lakers have also pledged to contribute $15,000 towards renovations of their previous room, which will soon be used by the skating club.
An earlier plan put forward by the town had sought to move the Lakers into the Skating Club’s dressing room and the Skating Club down the hall into one of the other dressing rooms, which the club at the time said would be inadequate for its needs.
According to Lakers general manager and head coach Luke Judson, all parties are satisfied with the final outcome. “From our understanding, everyone’s happy with where they’re ending up, including the figure skaters and us,” Judson told The Times.
“We are contributing to the figure skaters’ renovations. We’re happy to do that. They obviously have to make some changes to where they’re going to be operating out of, and they’ve been there for a long time, so we’re going to contribute. We’ll have a lot of our own renovations to do too, so luckily, we have a few extra playoff games this year to help pay that bill.”
The Times reached out to the Borderland Skating Club for comment on the council decision, but did not receive a reply in time for publication.
Craig Miller, community services and facilities manager for the Town of Fort Frances, said the town has also budgeted funds towards the renovations of all dressing rooms in the arena, with the majority being put towards the new Border Skating Club dressing room.
“The town has $175,000 in the budget for overall dressing room renovations and then the $15,000 from the Lakers,” Miller said.
“There’s not a whole lot of renovations required in the other rooms, so the main portion will be going towards the figure skaters’ room. I’ve been in a lot of arenas over the years, and we’re a unique facility in that Muskie Boys, Muskie Girls, Border Skating Club and the Lakers all have dedicated dressing rooms.”
The scope of work covered by the renovation costs for the skating club’s new dressing room will include improved lighting, fresh paint, updated ductwork, installation of bench seating, cubbies, mirrors, customized door signage, heavy-duty storage shelves and the removal of urinals with enclosed stalls taking their place.
The $175,000 towards dressing room work from the town excludes the Lakers’ new room, as they have opted to pay for their renovations themselves. The swap in dressing rooms and start of renovations are slated to begin after the current hockey season wraps up with tonight’s Salonen Cup Game 7.
