PMC repairs on hold for a new opinion

Additional assessment to cost about $6K and take another 4-8 weeks

City council’s going to seek another opinion before replacing the floor and ice pad rink at the Memorial Centre, a project that was expected to displace the Peterborough Century 21 Lakers lacrosse team for the entire season in 2019.

The cost for this further opinion is expected to be about $6,000, city property manager Mac MacGillivray told councillors – and it could take anywhere from four to eight weeks to complete.

If the opinion is consistent with the earlier assessments obtained by the city – that the floor needs replacement – that plan will be followed without further council debate.

But if other options are uncovered, those will be reported to council.

“I want to see a second opinion on this floor,” said Coun. Keith Riel, who moved for the deferral. “If it comes back the same way then I guess someone’s going to have to bite the bullet and get it done.”

Only Mayor Daryl Bennett and Coun. Dave Haacke voted against the deferral.

It’s a change from a meeting on Aug. 27, when councillors gave preliminary approval to a plan to start the $3.5-million floor replacement in June for completion Nov. 1, which was expected to delay home games for the Peterborough Petes for a few weeks into their 2019-20 season.

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 (which is on this week at the PMC). So council planned to do the work in the summer of 2019 instead.

Before the final vote on Monday, Peterborough Jr. A Lakers president Tim Barrie, representing the Century 21 Lakers, asked council to consider repairing the floor rather than replacing it next year, because tearing out the floor during lacrosse season in 2019 will “devastate” the team.

Barrie said the Lakers would lose fans, players, and sponsors if they are forced to play elsewhere next year.

“It will be lasting – it will take a long time to come back,” he said. “It could be catastrophic.… If we do survive, it will take years to build back up.”

The Lakers had previously asked the city to get a second opinion on whether the floor can be repaired rather than replaced.

But MacGillivray told councillors later the city has already sought opinions from at least two different engineering firms. They agree that the floor has structural issues that cannot be repaired, MacGillivray said: it must be replaced.

MacGillivray also told council the city did some “emergency shoring work” this summer that will only hold up until the end of the 2019 hockey season – following that, the floor will be deemed unsafe.

He said the city already has the opinion of the best-qualified engineer, on this matter.

Mayor Daryl Bennett said he’s concerned.

“We’re all trying to be the nice guys.… But at the end of the day, we have to fix this problem,” he said.

Bennett said the city must maintain the Memorial Centre until such a time when it might be replaced with a new OHL arena – and that could be anywhere from five to eight years from now.

In the meantime, he would have rather seen the city replace the PMC floor.

“We need to get this done.” NOTE: More city council coverage on Page A5 and reaction to the PMC plans on Page C1.