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Final arena proposal: $6.7 million
Published 12:00pm Tuesday, November 18, 2008Fergus Falls aldermen got their first glimpse Monday of what a $6.7 million community ice arena could look like.
A new ice arena was the subject of a feasibility study that wrapped up just this month. Beginning in May, a group of city staff, school district officials, community members and council members partnered with architectural firm ATS&R Inc. and Bonestroo, a Twin Cities-based engineering and planning firm, to detail a new and improved facility.
“We’ve had to make some hard decisions, but it’s been a great group to work with,” said ATS&R architect Paul Snyder, speaking to city council and school board members at a joint meeting Monday.
The proposed ice arena would replace the two southerly wings of the current high school, which will no longer house students following the 2009-2010 school year. The facility would include two NHL-regulation-size rinks — one main, one practice — with refrigerated, concrete slabs.
According to the study’s final report, the arena would also house locker rooms for varsity, junior varsity and youth players; a figure skating room; bleachers seating 1,100 along the main rink and 250 on the practice side; second-floor heated observation areas; a concession stand and storage room; and a front lobby with administrative office space.
The arena’s second floor would connect to the high school’s main level, with current classrooms available for meeting rooms, storage and offices. The school’s current media center could be used to house the city’s Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department, now located in a trailer on South Peck Street.
The advantage of the high school site, planners say, is that the arena would benefit from the same industrial chiller used to cool Kennedy Secondary School and the repurposed high school. The school district would pay for the refrigeration system’s capital expenses, while the city would be responsible for electricity charges and operating costs.
Utilizing the city-owned refrigeration system would save the project around $630,000 from the next lowest cost option, said Gary Kristofitz of Bonestroo.
Cost estimates based on a similar project in southwest Fargo and adjusted for inflation put the total price tag at nearly $7 million.
“That number has been up and down during the course of this process, but that’s the project’s cost of construction in March 2010,” Snyder said, referring to the proposed bid date.
Construction at the site could not begin until parts of the high school are cleared and demolished — meaning no sooner than August 2010. A project of this size typically takes about 12 months, Kristofitz said.
A lot will need to happen before council members are ready to make a decision on the project. A next step, said City Engineer Dan Edwards, is for Rick Terway of Parks, Recreation and Forestry to determine how much it would cost to rehabilitate the existing arena.
There’s also the question of funding. Members of the Fergus Falls Youth Hockey Association and Fergus Falls Figure Skating Association have said they could raise $2 million to $2.5 million for a new facility, Edwards said, but can’t guarantee that much support for upgrades at the current site.
