Lakers call on fans for support at City Hall Monday

Lacrosse team disputes city’s $1 million PMC repair estimate

The Peterborough Lakers issued a call Friday for fans to head to City Hall Monday night.

The team wants a show of support as engineers from the Toronto firm Entuitive appear before council to answer questions about a controversial report the Peterborough Memorial Centre floor.

Council heard last week that Entuitive, called in as a second opinion after another firm told council the floor would have to be replaced at a cost of $3.5 million, found that repairs could be done for $1 million.

Replacement would mean the Lakers would be shut out of the PMC next season, while repairs would shorten that period. The team has said that relocation to a smaller or more distant facility would cause financial hardship for the Lakers and season-long replacement of the floor will affect sports, concerts and tourism in the city.

Lakers board members, all volunteers, have questioned the cost of repairs.

Team officials say the “second opinion” from Entuitive should have come to only $250,000, but city staff say that covered only part of the repairs, with the total being $1 million including permits, contingencies and the cost to fix the dasher boards, required by the OHL, that surround the floor.

“The Lakers, mystified at the inflated repair bill the city came up with, will not give up the fight to repair rather than replace the floor, not only to save their team’s season next summer but to save the taxpayers an exorbitant repair bill and end this habit of throwing major money into the Memorial Centre when a new rink should be built – the sooner the better for all,” reads a statement from the team issued to the media Friday night.

“Suddenly it’s about more than the floor, and while the boards are probably mandated by the OHL for the Petes’ games, we are perplexed that this has become the Lakers’ problem,” the press release states. “We’ve been told so many different things that we no longer know the truth.”

City council meets Monday at 6 p.m. at City Hall.