Lucas Punkari
It might have taken longer than originally planned, but the new geothermal unit at the Fort Frances Curling Club finally is in place.
And with it officially up and running last Thursday, the ice-making process is well underway in preparation for the first draw of the season next Tuesday (Nov. 1).
“Finally,” club president Ron MacKinnon smiled.
“We may not have any snow on the ground yet, but we will be having curling underway starting next week,” he enthused.
The local curling season initially was slated to start Oct. 11. But in order to complete the installation of the new geothermal system, that date first was pushed back to this past Monday and then again to Nov. 1.
“I know some club members have been wondering what has been going on,” MacKinnon admitted.
“But we just ran into some hold-ups with summer rentals, and we didn’t want to disrupt those so the workers had to wait for us,” he explained.
Other than those delays, project manager Andrew Brookes, whose Kenora-based company, Earth4u, was in charge of the installation, said everything went according to plan.
“What we have done is essentially retrofitted this building from a traditional ice plant to a geothermal ice plant that will take care of the heating and cooling at the club,” noted Brookes, whose company started the project in August after a year of background work.
“We started off by installing a ground loop out in the ground to the north of the building, and then we put the lines back into the machine room where the heating and pumps all are,” he remarked.
“Basically, what we are doing is taking the heat from the ice and storing it into the ground, and then we will be using that throughout the winter to heat the building.”
One of the biggest things that’s noticeable about the new geothermal unit, besides the fact it takes up about half the space of the old unit, is the fact the sound level inside the room has decreased dramatically.
“You can’t even hear the plant running, which is something I think the club members will notice when they come into the building or even when they were upstairs,” MacKinnon said.
“You can even stand beside the unit and talk, which is amazing as before you couldn’t even talk while you were in here.
“And even when you had the door closed, outside you still had to yell at the other person.
“With that, and the new lights that are being installed, the only thing you are going to hear is ‘hurry hard,” MacKinnon quipped.
At this point, MacKinnon is stressing a wait-and-see outlook as to when the ice will be ready prior to Tuesday’s night opener, but he’s hoping things will be set for the end of this week.
“If that’s the case, we might invite our club members to come out and throw a few rocks to get into the swing of things again,” he noted.
“But the plan is still to start on the first of November, with our Monday night league playing at 5 and 7 p.m.”
The Monday night league was able to be pushed back a day because the International Falls league scheduled for Tuesdays doesn’t start play until the middle of November.
