Anawak provides $20,000 for repairs
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Rankin Inlet (Jan 31/01) - Ongoing water problems at the Rankin Inlet Arena means there are no longer washroom facilities.
Hamlet senior administrative officer Ron Roach says the arena is still open and repair work will be done as quickly as possible.
"Minister Jack Anawak notified us Thursday that Community Government and Transportation would provide the $20,000 we need to have the repairs done." says Roach.
"Health and Social Services did recommend the arena be closed, but they didn't force us to, so we're going to try and keep it open while we conduct the repairs."
The hamlet has to repair about 900 square feet of flooring and replace pipes in the public washrooms and curling arena.
Roach says the arena should be ready for the Polar Bear Plate junior tournament on Feb. 14. After that, some hard monetary decisions have to be made.
"The arena has become a money pit here, but nobody seems to want to address the situation.
"We're going to do a complete feasibility study on the arena after the tournament and, hopefully, we'll do a complete upgrade. If nothing else, we'll find out exactly what the building needs, but it's in pretty rough shape."
Hamlet workers noticed a soft spot on the floor early this past week while doing an inspection.
Pipes have burst at the arena before and Roach says there was basically no place for the water to go, but underneath the floor.
He says the water hit plywood, which has a vapour barrier underneath. It soaked into the plywood over time and, eventually, dry-rot occurred.
"Earlier this year, after checking with the proper authorities to ensure we had enough washrooms in the main area of the arena, we yanked the toilets out of the dressing rooms because young kids were plugging them up everyday with hockey tape and stuff.
"We were also planning to take the showers out so we could make the dressing rooms larger and save a bit of money because we wouldn't be in there unplugging the pipes all the time. Then the problems with the lobby washrooms surfaced and now we're back almost to square one."
