‘Ice for Kids’ to rally support for new arena

In a last-ditch effort to show town council the amount of support behind building a new indoor ice surface here, “Ice for Kids” is planning a rally and march next Monday.
Committee co-chair Les Baker, who arranged the rally with co-chair Dave Egan, said he’s hoping “hundreds” of supporters–including all minor hockey and Muskie players, figure skaters, coaches, and parents–will come out.
Everyone also is are being encouraged to make signs showing their support.
“I think this time we will show council the support we have in the community,” said Baker.
“They [council] have constantly tested us and now we’ll show them how bad the community wants this, and we’ll also see who’s against it,” he added.
Egan felt it was imperative that they show their support for this project before the council meeting.
“We want people to remember what it was like to have one game in two weeks,” stressed Egan.
Slated to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the site of the proposed arena (adjacent to Memorial Arena and the Sportsplex), the rally will move on to the Civic Centre prior to council’s regular meeting.
Council is expected to make a decision on the future of the project at that time. The lowest tender–almost $7.2 million by PennCo Construction of Winnipeg–came in much higher than the town had budgeted.
That figure also doesn’t include such things as GST and architect fees, which could send the final price tag closer to $8 million. The town was to meet with PennCo to discuss what could be done to pare down costs.
Another problem is that PennCo said it would take 51 weeks to build the arena–far longer than the 35-40 weeks the town had anticipated. As such, it’s all but certain the project won’t be completed by this fall as initially planned, if it goes ahead at all.
Which is why “Ice for Kids” is looking for a big turnout for Monday’s rally.
“This is the only way to handle this now so we’re hoping for a positive response,” said Baker, part of the “Ice for Kids” group that has spent close to nine years trying to get a second indoor ice surface built here.
“I hope everybody will come out and put aside what they have to do that night and show their support,” he stressed.
“All we’re asking is that people put down their baseball gloves and soccer cleats for a couple of hours and give up some of their time,” added Egan.