THUNDER BAY - After a three-week delay, the site of the collapsed Sports Dome is being cleaned up and members of the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition are hopeful the work is complete in time for the annual summer fair.
“As long as it’s done before the fair,” said CLE president, Al Law. “Once the demolition is completed we have to make sure it is totally secure and we will keep the fence around the site.”
The Sports Dome, a multi-purpose sports facility, collapsed in November 2016 following an early winter storm. Clearing the site saw several delays and last month the city’s bylaw enforcement office ordered the site to be cleaned up.
Work on the site, which was estimated by Law to cost between $150,000 and $200,000, was supposed to begin at the end of May and be completed by mid-June, but there was yet another delay.
“The main reason it was delayed two-and-a-half, three weeks was because Union Gas had to come in and shut off the gas line on Northern Avenue,” Law said. “It’s shut off at the dome, and that was all done, but to make sure it’s safe, we had to wait for Union Gas and they did that Friday afternoon.”
The new target for completion for the contractor, M Hashy and Sons, is mid-July, which would leave plenty of time before the CLE Summer Fair in early August.
However, even with the site cleared, Law said there are no plans to utilize the space during the fair. But he added the CLE is hopeful the space will see something new that could benefit the whole community.
“Hopefully, in the end, we can come up with a facility that is either a permanent structure that can be used by a variety of potentials interests in Thunder Bay,” he said. “That’s our goal, to have a permanent structure over there so we can use it for tradeshows and possibly the CLE can have a stage set up in there.”
