Heather Latter
A new ice plant “chiller” will be purchased for the Ice For Kids Arena here.
Town council approved the recommendation for the purchase and installation of the unit, costing $95,828.52 ($84,804 plus $11,024 HST), at Monday night’s meeting.
Community Services manager Jason Kabel explained in a written report to council that an ammonia leak was discovered in the “chiller” last Tuesday morning during the daily check by arena staff.
He noted a maintenance crew from Winnipeg-based company Toromont Cimco was dispatched to address the leak and the failure was discovered to be a burst tube in the “chiller.”
The “chiller” is a long tube that encases a series of smaller ones that circulates the brine and ammonia, which cools the floor of an arena so that water can be frozen to help in the ice-making process.
“It has been plugged and the brine has been drained from the unit,” Kabel noted, adding a similar issue occurred six years ago.
He said the cost to repair the problem was estimated at $12,000-$15,000. But there was concern that while the burst tube could be repaired, others could fail in the near future.
“It will simply be a band-aid solution,” Kabel stressed, adding a Cimco rep had recommended it would be more prudent to replace the entire “chiller” unit.
Now that Kabel has been given the okay to purchase the new unit, which will be brought up from southern Ontario and take about eight-10 weeks to be fully operational, the currently-scheduled summer ice times at the Ice For Kids Arena will be moved into the ’52 Canadians Arena.
The ice-making process there, which is unaffected by the situation in the adjacent Ice For Kids facility, is slated to begin on Monday, July 30 (following the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship) and be completed in about five days.
While starting up the unit in the older rink could pose it own problems, since it hasn’t run in the summer months for about 12 years, Kabel doesn’t anticipate it will affect any of the events being moved into the ’52 Canadians Arena, such as the Lakehead Thunderwolves’ hockey camp, summer power-skating sessions, and training camp for the Fort Frances Lakers.
“Everything should be ready to go by mid-September,” he remarked.
“The same week we would normally have start-up of our second ice surface for the season.”
Kabel added the quick decision by council on the matter will eliminate any postponement of ice bookings for the upcoming season and remove the likelihood of actually cancelling ice bookings for major user groups.
The life expectancy of the new “chiller” unit is 25 years, and includes a more advanced brine filtering system that inhibits corrosion like the current unit has experienced.
Meanwhile, both the Ice For Kids and the ’52 Canadians arenas will receive funding for seat repairs through Union Gas’ “Helping Hands In Action” program.
Luke Skaarup, utility services and construction manager, who presented the cheques to council at Monday night’s meeting, explained they selected projects that Union Gas employees were interested in.
Through the HHIA program, employees contribute their “sweat equity” to projects that improve, renovate, or add tangible value to non-profit and charitable organizations in their communities.
In addition, Union Gas and its parent company, Spectra Energy, supports these employee-led projects with community improvement grants of up to $1,000 each to purchase supplies and materials for the completion of the projects.
Four $1,000 cheques were presented to council, with $2,000 going towards repairing seats in the ’52 Canadians Arena and $1,000 to repairing seats in the Ice For Kids Arena.
Another $1,000 will be used to assist the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce for its downtown beautification project (“Project Petunia”).
“We’re very happy to be able to help with improvements in our community,” Skaarup remarked.
