Final decision Monday on PMC floor repairs

Work would start next June, displacing the Lakers next season

Council will vote a final time on Monday to repair the floor and to replace the ice rink pad at the Memorial Centre in 2019 — even though the project will cost $3.5 million instead of $2 million.

The plan got preliminary approval from councillors at a meeting on Aug. 27. Now it needs to be ratified at a council meeting.

Work could start June 3 for completion by Nov. 1, 2019, which would delay home games for the Peterborough Petes for a few weeks into their 2019-20 season.

A city staff report explains that the cost overrun of $1.5 million is due to factors such as an increase in construction costs and the addition of a contingency.

More than a year ago, city staff noticed spalling and cracks in one area of the concrete foundation wall beneath the ice surface.

Council considered doing the repair work in the summer of 2018, but it would have displaced the Lakers lacrosse team in a year when they are eligible to host the Mann Cup (on this week at the Memorial Centre).

So council voted to do the work in the summer of 2019, instead.

Meanwhile councillors also voted on Aug. 27 to reimburse the Peterborough Lakers lacrosse team for roughly $250,000 lost on ticket sales during the 2019 season when the team is displaced.

But the Lakers aren’t happy the city is displacing them from the Memorial Centre, next year.

Following the meeting on Aug. 27, they held a press conference where they said the displacement from the Memorial Centre could cost them their fan base.

Lakers officials also called on the city to get a second opinion before ripping the floor out from under the team.

The Lakers board of directors even offered to pay for that second opinion, but so far the city hasn’t accepted.

City staff says it looks as though the Lakers may be playing at the city-owned Evinrude Centre next year, instead of the Memorial Centre.

The council meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall.