Spending almost $300,000 to install a temporary ice plant to get Arena 2 at the Port Moody rec centre up open will deplete the city’s emergency fund by almost half.
But with only one ice surface operational at the PoMo recreation complex, the city is caught between a rock and a hard place that would affect user groups and families far beyond the city's borders, said Kate Zanon, general manager of community services.
Arena 2 had to be closed in August after a routine test detected the presence of ammonia in the brine lines that chill the ice. Arena 1 is not affected.
Zanon told Port Moody’s council’s finance committee Tuesday that both of the city’s arenas are “programmed to capacity” through the winter season, including hockey tournaments that attract players and their families from across British Columbia. She said while some programming has been juggled through September by cancelling the first session of skating lessons and accommodating some user groups in ice time purchased at Planet Ice in Coquitlam, that becomes more difficult as the hockey and skating seasons ramp up in October through March, when the ice is typically removed.
“It would really impact everybody through the season,” Zanon said. “We could not function with just one arena.”
Zanon said that sense of crisis meant her team hasn’t yet had a chance to assess whether the faulty ice plant can be repaired or needs to be replaced. She said that process has been complicated by new requirements Technical Safety BC implemented in the wake of an ammonia leak at an arena in Fernie last year that killed three workers and led to the evacuation of 55 neighbouring homes.
“We’re in a bit of unchartered territory here,” she said.
Coun. Zoe Royer, who was the only councillor who voted against the proposed expenditure, said the blow to the city’s emergency fund is concerning, especially as the potential costs of repairing or replacing Arena 2’s ice plant still aren’t known.
“I worry we’re spreading ourselves very thin,” she said.
But Port Moody’s general manager of financial services, Paul Rockwood, reassured the committee funds could be tapped from other reserves should some sort of emergency occur.
“Depending on the scale of emergency, if it was local, all reserves would be on the table for council’s consideration,” he said.
Zanon said about $40,000 of the $300,000 will actually pay for an upgrade to the arena’s electrical system that will remain in place after the temporary plant is no longer required.
She said the temporary plant is expected to be installed and operational by Oct. 5, just in time for Port Moody Minor Hockey Association’s annual Bantam A and C tournament, which begins Oct. 6.
