The City of Rossland council has awarded a $435,584 tender to Canada West Refrigeration to replace the chiller and condenser in the city’s arena.
According to an online council agenda, the system will use 40 per cent less ammonia to maintain the ice and will have a heat recovery unit to quickly melt it.
Mayor Kathy Moore said the decision to replace the system wasn’t a quick one.
“We’ve had several years of discussion about whether we wanted to continue to invest in the arena or if we should just turn it into a year-round athletic facility with no ice,” said Moore.
“There was a lot of public consultation and angst about this and we even had a task force to help guide us. Ultimately, council decided that we wanted to continue to invest in the arena for ice sports.”
Every summer, the ice rink is decommissioned and turns into a concrete floor for other sports and activities.
Another $140,000 in work will also have to be completed by subcontractors to build a new concrete floor, paint, rebuild the brine pump and complete electrical and structural upgrades.
The city will spend at least $575,584 to complete the project.
If the project remains under budget during the construction process, Moore said a $50,000 high-tech monitoring device could also be installed on the system to let the city know quickly when there are mechanical problems.
The city has set aside $700,000 for the project in its 2020 budget.
While CWR was the lowest bidder, the city also received three other tenders from companies for the project.
Canada West Refrigeration will start work on the project shortly and the ice area is still slated to open to the public in October.
READ MORE: Repairs made to Rossland arena cooling system, ice-making underway
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