Duane Hicks
While there’s been a slight delay in the installation of a new ice plant “chiller” unit at the Ice for Kids Arena here, users can rest assured a surface will be ready by Sept. 30.
Community Services manager Jason Kabel told town council Monday night that the delivery of the “chiller” won’t be until next Monday (Sept. 17).
He had anticipated it already would be here by now.
Toromont Cimco from Winnipeg will be in town Monday to begin installing the unit, which should take about a week.
“We’ll begin making ice two weeks from today [Sept. 24] and that will take one week,” noted Kabel.
“So regular use of the ice surface will be available Sept. 30, which is the date we gave to our ice users.
“We haven’t booked ice prior to Sept. 30.
“I was hoping to have it ready a week early,” Kabel admitted. “[But] now with the delay in production and shipping, we are going to hit that Sept. 30 deadline.”
The previous ice plant “chiller,” which was 12 years old, needed to be replaced after it suffered an ammonia leak due to a burst tube back in July.
Also at Monday night’s meeting, council:
•approved retaining Tetra Tech to complete a landfill site closure and post-closure plan at an estimated cost of $22,000 plus taxes (this non-budgeted expenditure will be conciliated during the year-end audit process, and financed either from reserves or an operating surplus);
•approved an amendment to a resolution from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in support of a new long-term federal plan for municipal infrastructure funding (the amendment is to include the replacement or repair of sanitary sewers and associated municipal infrastructure, such as watermains, asphalt driving surfaces, sidewalks, and storm sewer mains);
•approved a half-page congratulatory advertisement in the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame and Museum 31st-annual induction dinner souvenir program at a cost of $250;
•approved the 2012-13 membership request from Sunset Country Travel Association in the amount of $1,891.25 plus taxes;
•approved a travel claim for Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig in the amount of $372 (for attendance at the AMO conference in Ottawa last month);
•approved a travel and per diem claim for Mayor Roy Avis ($1,181.52) and Couns. Andrew Hallikas and Paul Ryan ($1,121.60 each); and
•referred a request from the Northwest Catholic District School Board, re: amendment to the joint use agreement for the St. Francis Sports Fields, to the Community Services executive committee for its recommendation.
