Upgrades at the Frontenac Community Arena progressing well

Daniel Geleyn | Mar 31, 2021

Major upgrades to the Frontenac Community Arena are well under way and are planned to be completed by the end of June, well ahead of its September re-opening.

The arena, like many other small community arenas in Ontario, was built in the 1970’s with the help of funding through Wintario grants. Now in its fifth decade of operation, the upgrades are needed, not only for the safety of its users but also to make the facility more efficient to operate. The arena project was sponsored by the former townships of Hinchinbrooke, Portland, Oso, and Bedford. Since 1998, it has been owned by Central and South Frontenac, and administered by the Arena Board with representation from the two townships

“The arena is the largest and most used facility we have in South Frontenac, and it also serves Central Frontenac,” says Tim Laprade, the Arena & Recreation Supervisor for the Township of South Frontenac.

Due to its age, there has been a focus in the last couple years on capital replacement at the arena. This was started in the summer of 2020 with the replacement of the chilling system. But while that work was being done, it was realized that the refrigerant lines in the floor were just too contaminated and had the potential to damage the new equipment.

As the floor was already scheduled to be replaced in March of this year, it was decided to not open the facility for the 2020/2021 season and start the floor replacement project early.

“With the scenario with COVID-19, that was the best choice for us. We were able to start the project much earlier than we had anticipated. We now hope to complete it by the end of June which gives us lots of time to deal with unknowns that may come up which happens with older infrastructure,” says Laprade.

But so far, there has been no major setbacks and Laprade is optimistic that the project is now well on its way to a successful completion by the summer. In addition to the required upgrades to the refrigeration system, Laprade says there will be a number of other improvements to the facility, such as flush ice, a rubberized floor and much more, which will all make for a better experience for the many users.

“Many more improvements will be revealed when we open in September,” he says.

Although the many users of the facility were negatively impacted by the closure, most of the groups were able to take advantage of other facilities in nearby communities this past year. The pandemic restrictions would have made it difficult for the facility to make ends meet in any case due to the increased operational costs and reduced revenue streams, so doing the required renovations this year was good timing.

The projects taken together are worth well over a million dollars but “our costs for the users will not be increasing after the renovations,” says Laprade.

The upgrades should mean significant reductions in the operational costs. “Making the ice was about 75% of our utility costs in the past, but this should be reduced significantly with the new system,” says Laprade.

Despite the short term pain of the closure for the users, the much improved arena is likely to be much appreciated by its many users.

“We hope to be able to go into a normal season this coming year as the facility will be ready, but some pandemic restrictions may still apply,” says Laprade.