3-year Wainfleet Arena project wraps up
With renovations now complete, Wainfleet Arena is fully updated and fully accessible.
Richard Nan, manager of operations with the township, said renovations wrapped up last week after beginning almost three years ago.
Work on the total $2.09-million project started in early 2015, at which point $690,000 was used to replace dasher boards and the rink floor, as well as address some health and safety issues.
Once that work was done, 2016 saw the start of Phase 1 of updating the rest of the arena — a $1.4-million project that included $290,500 in funding from the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program.
Updates to the area during Phase 1 and 2 included making the building accessible, doing brickwork to the exterior, fixing the roof and reworking the entire electrical system, just to name a few. A 108-square-metre addition was put on the building, where new minor hockey change rooms and storage was put in.
“We basically took the building that was here and fixed everything we could,” said Nan. “It was a very large-scale retrofit.”
Mayor April Jeffs said the arena is really the hub of Wainfleet, where many people come to host functions or visit the seniors room — called the Friendship Room — and where township events such as the fall fair and Marshville Heritage Festival take place.
In the past, she said, residents have taken ownership of the building in a way, raising money for its repairs and really becoming invested in making sure the arena sticks around. Because of that, it was important to the township to make sure the arena is the best it can be for the people who use it.
The arena as people know it now was originally formed in the 1970s when the township brought a pavilion and what was then the arena together. Over the years, there have been updates here and there, but Nan said this was the first big renovation on the arena.
“It’s an aging building,” he said. “It got to the point that it needed a major overhaul.”
Because of its age, before the renovations, energy efficiency wasn’t a big part of the structure. Now there are sensor lights that only turn on when someone is in the room and there are vestibules at entrances to try to keep in as much heat or cool air, depending on the season, as possible.
Nan said he is hoping for 23 per cent energy savings with the renovations.
Jeffs said so far feedback has been positive. Seniors who use the Friendship Room are excited by the larger space, minor hockey teams are happy with the new change rooms and, she said, many residents have been stopping her to commend the township on how nice the updates are. lbarton@postmedia.com twitter.com/LBartonTribune