The Clairmont Arena will be closed until at least the end of January due to safety concerns. On December 3rd, the Clairmont & District Agricultural Society closed the rink after discovering a leaky roof.
Society President Cindy Trudel says it was really hard to make the call, especially now with hockey, ringette and public skating going on.
“I haven’t slept in probably five days, it’s been very emotional… I’ll tell you, I’ve done a lot of tough things in my life but that was tough.”
Trudel says they have been working hard to make sure the teams and people who use the arena have another place to go.
“We’ve done our utmost best to try and get them into other facilities. Our Arena manager Clint Froehlick has been working non-stop to notify everybody and get them set up somewhere else.”
Despite the tough time, Trudel says the silver lining in all this is that they’ve had people reach out and ask them how they can help including the Source Energy Arena & Recreation Centre in Wembley which has offered its rink up to displaced users looking for ice time.
She says she appreciates everything people can offer and adds that for those looking to help, money is key.
“Money is always a good thing for a non-profit. We’re working very closely with the county right now trying to figure out what our next steps are going to be. We have a fantastic board on the Ag society right now and we’ll be doing a lot of fundraising in the next little while.”
The County is currently looking at getting a quote for an engineering study on the arena, which Council will review on December 9th. If the work is approved, they expect to have the engineer’s report done by mid-January 2020.