Trail council was cancelled on Monday, but city officials still took care of $320,000 worth of business earlier in the day.
Read more: Trail Sk8 Park opens
Read more: Introducing the Trail Sk8 Park
As the snow melts over the coming months, the city will be tasked with finishing touches at the Trail Sk8 Park. So this week, council members moved ahead with final landscaping work by approving a budget of $196,000 and by voting in favour of the design put forth by recreation director Trisha Davison.
“Getting the landscaping work underway as soon as possible is critical,” Davison said in her council memo. “Delays in this work commencing will impact the date of the grand opening event of the skate park (in spring).”
Public Works will maintain the physical grounds of the site, and consideration has been given to making the ongoing maintenance as efficient as possible, she explained.
“This includes aiming to manage the slope grades to eliminate hand mowing if possible, placement of garbage cans for easy access, and the use low maintenance garden details.”
Council also awarded a $131,000 contract to Vimar Equipment Ltd. for a new ice re-surfacing machine in the Trail Memorial Centre.
Two bids were submitted in response to the city’s Request for Quotation. Kendrick Equipment, located in Richmond, was the higher bid at $134,000 compared to a $125,000 quote by Burnaby’s Vimar Equipment.
Interestingly, there are two primary manufacturers of ice re-surfacers in Canada, Zamboni and Resurfice. Each brand is distributed by a different company. Zamboni is by Kendrick Equipment, and Resurfice is distributed in B.C. by Vimar Equipment.
Thus, instead of a Zamboni, the city’s new machine will be an “Olympia.”
The city’s two Zamboni ice resurfacers were purchased in 1989 and 2003, respectively.
They both have over 7,500 hours, whereas most machines have an engine and transmission failure between 6,000‐8,000 hours. On average, arenas replace their ice resurfacers at 8‐ 10 years, depending on hours.
Arenas that keep their machines longer, take the risk of unexpected failures that impact service delivery. Older machines are a lot less reliable and breakdown for an almost unlimited number of reasons, most of which are unpreventable.
It is anticipated that the 1989 Zamboni will be taken out of service when the new ice resurfacer is delivered.
The 2003 machine could have a major failure anytime, and may also be replaced within the next few years. It will be added to the recreation department’s five-year financial plan.
newsroom@trailtimes.ca
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