Terry Kruger
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 19/00) - City council has yet to endorse a motion calling for a new arena development, a move that will come with a call for community fund-raising, but one group has already put its cash behind the plan.

The Wade Hamer Foundation, named after a Yellowknife minor hockey MVP who died in 1987, has written the city a cheque for $10,000.

Ter Hamer, Wade's father, presented the cheque Monday and said a new arena facility is badly needed and that the foundation made such a recommendation in 1990.

"At our original presentation, we provided data which showed our city had the absolute worst arena situation vis-a-vis our peer cities in Western Canada, those from one half to double our size," he said in a letter to the committee.

He said that original efforts to build a twin-pad arena near the high schools began in the 1970s.

"I wish we would have succeeded 20 years ago," he said. "We might be 20 years late, but let's make sure it succeeds now."

Council is expected to ratify the motion calling for a twin-pad arena, and challenge community groups to raise money to help pay for a portion of the capital cost.