Rocky View County’s (RVC) Recreation Governance Committee has agreed to provide emergency funding to the Town of Crossfield to help replace its aging ice plant at the Pete Knight Memorial Arena.
Committee members endorsed allocating a one-time $206,000 grant to the Town from the County’s public reserves during the Feb. 1 meeting.
The total cost of the new ice plant will be around $825,000 when all is said and done, and the County is keeping its commitment to fund up to 25 per cent of the capital cost of the project in line with its recreation policies, in assisting RVC residents to access recreational amenities in neighbouring jurisdictions.
According to County staff, RVC residents collectively pay 37,000 individual visits per year to the Pete Knight Memorial Arena, representing about one-third of all annual visits to the popular venue.
Additional funding for the new ice plant will come from Crossfield Minor Hockey, for a total of about $364,000. The Town’s share will be about $255,000.
Russ Nash, director of community and protective services for the Town of Crossfield, said the replacement of the ice plant is pre-emptive rather than reactive.
“There is currently no issue with it, or risk of it going down,” he told the Rocky View Weekly. “But some of the components have reached or surpassed the recommended lifecycle of them. In order to get the project going and get the ice plant replaced in time for the following skating season, we need to get going on it relatively quick.”
The existing ice plant was installed in 1995, and has exceeded its recommended lifespan, according to the standards and guidelines set out by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers.
Now that the County has agreed to the Town’s funding request, Nash said the process of replacing of the old ice plant with the new one will begin in April.
“The hope is to get started on removal of the existing plant by early April or May, and then have everything completed by Sept. 1, and running and operational, so we can put ice back in the fall,” he said.
