Baddeck rink in dire need of repairs

BADDECK — The deteriorating state of Victoria County's lone indoor rink saddens John Trickett.

The president for the Victoria Highlands Civic Centre board of directors said he was “shocked” to learn that the arena would require millions of dollars in repairs just to keep it in operation.

“We already knew there were major structural repairs that had to be done, but not to the extent that was required by the engineers report,” said Trickett, noting that it was the board who took the initiative to request a full assessment of the infrastructure.

The nearly 50-year-old facility initially had been constructed to serve only male hockey players, Trickett said. So he and the board commissioned an engineers' report from Dillon Consulting to look at how they could add a female dressing room in the building, spurred on by a growing interest from girls' minor hockey teams.

“We had the engineers come in and give us an idea what it would cost to add on dressing rooms,” Trickett said. ““We knew we had to do something with the roof because it was leaking consistently, so we asked them to look at the leaky roof as well and do everything in one shot.

‘DEEPER ASSESSMENT’

Over a period of several months, Trickett added, “They looked at the rink, and then they came back to us and said there are bigger problems — we can't even give you a price on this. There's a deeper assessment that needs to be done.”

The detail report found not just a leaky roof, but also corrosion in the walls, rust in the building's girts and beams, as well as mould and mildew in other parts of the facility.

To repair the roof and keep it water tight, Trickett said that alone would cost at least $2.2 million. To bring the facility up to today's building code standards, including making it accessible and getting rid of the mould, that he said would add on roughly another $3 million.

Based on that, he said, the board were faced with three options:

a) repair any must-dos to keep the facility running for up to the next five years;

b) complete all the major renovations and repairs, as recommended by the engineers' report; or

c) do a whole new rebuild, possibly as a multi-use facility.

‘NOT IN JEOPARDY THIS YEAR’

“For this year, the facility is not in jeopardy of closing,” Trickett said. “But the question remains for the future: What does the community at large want in the form of a regional civic centre? Do we want to keep it? Do we want to close it? That's where we are with it right now.

“Hopefully, our municipal leaders will provide direction on that.”

Trickett said he has met with Victoria County Warden Bruce Morrison and several councillors to show them the current conditions inside the Victoria Highlands Civic Centre. Trickett added the board is planning a presentation to go before council, though no date had been set at this point.

WARDEN SUPPORTS RINK

Morrison told the Cape Breton Post he would certainly welcome Trickett and the board of directors and put his full support in keeping the arena up and running.

“It certainly can't continue to operate in its current state,” said Morrison, adding that the arena is privately owned and not a municipally owned complex. “It's just going to take whatever funding they can receive.

”We just hope that they'll have a safe and operational recreation facility in the county that's of value. And we'll be waiting for the rink board to come and visit us and have the necessary discussions.”