It’s been one year since the city decommissioned the James Whyte Arena, and now City Hall is trying to figure out what to do with the vacant space.
The issue was discussed during a meeting of the city’s Parks, Trails and Recreation Committee on Monday evening.
“I think that the municipality is really looking to this committee to guide what to do with the space once it reopens,” the city’s Program Supervisor Stephanie Jarvis told committee members.
The city closed the James Whyte arena last March because the costs of upkeep of the cooling system were deemed too high.
Ever since City Hall has been using the space to store their heavy machinery, such as salt trucks and plows, while the new operations centre on Beaverdams Rd is undergoing construction.
Committee members expressed worry about this strategy during Monday’s meeting.
“If you’re putting heavy equipment on a concrete floor, eventually it’s going to start cracking and you’re going to start getting leaks,” said Chair Kieran Daniels. “It’s going to come to a point where you won’t be able to use the facility because there’s going to be liability issues regarding the integrity of the structure, the floor, and the building.”
The city hopes to have the new operations centre finished by September, at which point the arena will become available to the public again.
“Hopefully in September all those trucks will be out of there and we can start utilizing it for some dry floor space,” said Jarvis.
Thorold Minor Baseball and lacrosse have already expressed interest in using the arena.
Because there is no heating or air conditioning, the space only has limited capabilities.
“It’s functioning right now would be between September and December if the weather holds up until December,” Jarvis said. “Just because it gets so cold that you wouldn’t necessarily want to use it in the months of January and February.”
But some committee members said they had difficulty coming up with ideas, when the state of the arena is unknown.
“It is going to depend on the condition of the building once the heavy equipment moves out,” said Tony Vandermaas. “I don’t know whether council would be in the mood to spend a lot of money on the place. If there’s a lot of damage I don’t think they’re going to want to fix it.”
“We got to wait until they’re out of there,” added Joe Atkinson. “Until then trying to plan on anything is almost moot.”
The Frank Doherty Arena, which is housed in the same building as the James Whyte Arena, is already set to undergo some maintenance this summer.
“There’s a new roof that’s going to go up,” said Jarvis. “I don’t know how much it will actually affect the arenas. For the most part Doherty will be available. I think there might be some minor maintenance happening but more or less it will be available for the summer.”
Jarvis also shared that a City Hall report on the long term future of the Thorold Community Arenas is forthcoming and should be presented to city council in the summer.
