THUNDER BAY – Work to get the Delaney Arena floor refrigeration system running again has begun.
Kelvin Jankowski, manager of Capital Facilities Construction, told Newswatch on Monday that the concrete monolithic slab has been poured, and now they are just waiting for it to cure before installing the new boards.
“It's been a long process of removing the old boards and removing the floor and the underlying insulation, inspecting all of the structural elements of Delaney Arena to make sure that they were all in good shape, and now we're across the big threshold where the big pores are now clearing,” Jankowski said.
He said the $2.6 million project will be completed by Sept. 15. From there, they will put in the ice and have the facility operational for October.
“Delaney is a very popular arena, and the hockey community is very passionate and the skating community in general. We are looking forward to getting this back fully online,” Jankowski said.
Accessibility improvement to the arena will allow for more movement and less congestion, according to Jankowski.
He said they reconfigured “the location of the penalty boxes and the scorekeeper. We spread out the players' boxes so that they'll all be on the one side and then the other side will be dedicated to spectators only.”
On July 14, city council approved a stage two funding application to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund's community enhancement program for $2 million.
If successful, the funding will be put towards additional upgrades, such as rink lighting, front entrance egress and mitigating seasonal flooding issues, and a new scoreboard and controller.
Delaney Arena is obviously prime time, fully booked seven days a week, during the ice season, and then it switches over to summer sports. I believe one time lacrosse was in here and they're over in another arena right now for obvious reasons, but they'll probably come back and be used for the summer as well,” Jankowski said.
