Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 25/02) - Don't look now, but the arena's estimated opening date has changed again.

Instead of Oct. 7, which the city was predicting up until Monday, the new arena will now be open sometime in mid-October.

City community services director Grant White is blaming the delay on a missing piece of equipment.

The condenser base for the ice plant -- a piece of pre-fabricated steel that would support a heat-exchange unit -- is late in arriving from Alberta. Delivery was supposed to happen last week, but the base isn't expected until later this week.

Without a functioning ice plant, the ice won't freeze on the rink.

It's a sign of the city's lack of certainty about various elements of the arena that the new opening date isn't a date at all but an estimate.

Ice user groups will be forced to trade off time week by week at the Yellowknife Community Arena as a result of the continued delays.

Kevin Stapleton, the president of the Yellowknife Minor Hockey League, called on the city to be honest with user groups and come up with a realistic opening date -- even if it is Jan. 1.

"It's very disruptive to us at minor hockey not knowing what we can give out for schedules week to week," he said.

"Parents like to plan in advance and they like to see schedules a month or two months ahead of time."

But, said Lynn Fowler, president of the Yellowknife men's broomball association, "it's an inconvenience but we'll just have to go with whenever it starts. We can't do much about it."

The $13.6 million facility was first supposed to open around Labour Day.

"Everybody is so busy getting qualified staff that it's next to impossible (to get things done on schedule)," said White.

The gymnastics club gym should be finished by Oct. 7, its planned opening date.

Coun. Dave McCann said he doesn't expect the arena open for at least another month.

"I'm very concerned that they're slipping, and basically time is money."

"We've had to put more money in it and now we're not getting anything out of a product we bought," he said.

When it does eventually open, the arena will be far from complete.

Because steel and concrete work remains on the building's second floor, workers won't be able to install the arena boiler until later in the fall.

In the meantime, skaters won't be able to use the arena change rooms because of fire regulations, since the wet sprinkler system can't function without the heat.

So the city will bring in temporary change rooms -- possibly the portables at the old Gerry Murphy -- and temporary heaters.

White said the provisional measures won't cost the city any more money than planned.

But Stapleton called the idea "crazy," saying if the city goes with the Gerry Murphy portables it would probably cost $50,000 to move and ready them for use.

"That's a complete waste of money and waste of time," he said.