Repair bill hits city hall
Rocky relations between curling club and city

Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 05/99) - Should the curling club pay or the city? That's the $34,555.52 question.

Curling club manager Klaus Schoenne told the mayor and councillors Monday the city should pay the repair bill for leaky fittings on pipes used to carry refrigerant from pipes beneath the ice surface to the compressor.

"I don't think the curling club is here looking for financial support," said Schoenne. "It's a legal issue, a lease issue about who is responsible for these costs."

Using volunteer labour, the club replaced 240 metres of piping at a cost of $34,555.52, a job it estimates would have cost $75,000-$100,000 if performed by a contractor.

Under the terms of a 20-year lease between the club and the city, which owns the facility, the club is responsible for regular maintenance and the city for structural repairs to the building.

The club contends the pipe problem is the result of substandard parts used in construction of the system. The city says it was substandard maintenance that caused the problem.

Both agree that the problem centres on adapters that had to be used when the wrong sized fittings were ordered at the time the system was built. The adapters, made of galvanized steel, rusted, and the brine in the pipes started to leak out.

The city maintains that the adapters rusted from the outside and the problem could have been prevented by regular inspections and occasionally painting the piping to protect it from rust.

No amount of paint could have prevented the problem, said Schoenne, because the adapters rusted from the inside.

"If you replace a boiler in your house, is that regular maintenance?" asked Schoenne.

He further added that a worker at the Gerry Murphy Arena told him that refrigeration pipes there have not been painted in the last 30 years, and that the pipes at the community arena have never been painted either.

"There is no maintenance program for this four-inch pipe," he said.

Community services director Grant White said inspection of clamps and valves is part of the regular maintenance program at the community arena, and that the pipes there were painted about three years ago.

Coun. Bob Brooks sided with the club, noting the lease did not define regular maintenance and that no other club is expected to pay all of the operational costs of its facility.

But Mayor Dave Lovell said the repair bill is only an issue because of the financial squeeze the club is experiencing. It has averaged a loss of $11,000 for each of the 11 years it has leased the building.

"Were this a profitable club we wouldn't be having this argument, it would just be done, and we've given it the means to be profitable."

The means Lovell referred to was the bar the club operates at the rink, "a business" that the city provided when it built the facility.

Schoenne countered that the club's ability to raise money with the bar is hampered because it feels it is wrong to compete aggressively with privately-owned bars in town.

Council will provide an answer to the question Monday, but Schoenne said if council decides Monday the curling club should foot the entire bill, it won't be the last word.

He said the lease agreement gives them the option of going to an arbitrator and that the club would go that route if the city refuses to pay.