Duane Hicks
The Ice For Kids Arena will be getting a new sound system in time for the Dudley Hewitt Cup here this spring.
In a written report, Community Services manager Jason Kabel told town council the sound system there has been a source of concern and complaints for patrons and regular users alike for the past couple of years.
“We have had audio specialists come in to advise us of different strategies we could employ in an attempt to offer a better service to the community in this regard,” Kabel noted.
“[But] efforts to adjust our existing system to create better sound have not proven successful.
“It does appear that when the Ice For Kids rink was built, that a ‘cookie-cutter’ arena sound system was installed and it has been inadequate for quite some time,” he added.
For hockey games, Kabel said announcing goals and penalties “is quite often unintelligible” and “music at play stoppages is distorted.”
The Border Skating Club recently applied for—and received—grant money to furnish its own portable system to use as required for figure skating events due to sound quality concerns with the available system, he added in his report.
Kabel also noted graduation ceremonies have been held for years on the ice surface, and arena staff “receive concerns with incomprehensible announcing of names for the proceedings.”
Furthermore, the Shrine Circus that comes to the Ice For Kids Arena each spring “doesn’t even attempt to use our sound system anymore, knowing that it is subpar for their event,” he wrote.
The Community Services Division has received an estimate from a local Bose Sound representative to the tune of nearly $20,000.
This would provide a sound system that could serve all types of events with and without ice in the facility.
Kabel noted with the Dudley Hewitt Cup coming up in late April, the new sound system would be a timely consideration.
Council agreed—authorizing the Community Services division to upgrade the sound system in the Ice For Kids Arena, with the associated costs to be included in the 2015 capital budget process.
Also at last night’s meeting, council:
•heard a presentation by local resident Senja Holbrook, who requested the town not kill the Canada geese here but instead look into means of cleaning up goose feces, such as having high school students clean it up in exchange for volunteer hours needed to graduate;
•agreed to renew a lease agreement with Bearskin Airlines LP at the Fort Frances Airport for a one-year period commencing on Jan. 1, 2015 and directed that an authorizing renewal by-law be prepared; and
•approved a V-Day Fort Frances 2015 sponsorship request in the amount of $150.
