Officials: Ice arena on borrowed time

By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Fergus Falls hockey arena is living on borrowed time.

That’s the word from city and school district officials who met Monday night to discuss the future of the 25-year-old structure.

The City of Fergus Falls, the Fergus Falls School District and the local hockey association are awaiting the results of a feasibility study that will help determine the cost of maintaining the current arena versus building a new one.

But that didn’t stop city and school officials from meeting Monday to discuss how best to accomodate a new hockey facility.

Officials said Monday that the current site’s cooling system is under stress. The system is designed for 20 years but is now pushing 25, said Rick Terway, parks and recreation manager for the city of Fergus Falls.

“So we’re living on borrowed time. We could go three years or three months — you just don’t know when a pipe is going to break,” Terway said.

Those pipes are starting to show their age, said Mark Masten, the school district’s business manager, referencing leaks the past few years. While the leaks have been minor, a bigger problem could be just around the corner, he said.

“It’s kind of like the squeaky pot on the stove,” Masten said. “It’s letting you know that something’s not going to be around for long.”

A city-organized inspection of the arena last year suggested upkeep at the current site could carry a hefty price tag. With the arena requiring roughly $3 million in repairs and upgrades, a new city-owned facility may be a better investment for the long term, according to City Administrator Mark Sievert.

When findings of the feasibility are shared in two weeks the pros and cons of two potential arena sites will also be weighed.

One location is east of the middle school, with a corridor connecting the arena to the main school building. Problems at this site, Masten said, include poor soil conditions for the arena’s construction and diminished parking space upon its completion.

The second site is adjacent to the high school, replacing the building’s college wing along Friberg after students in grades 6-12 transition to the middle school in the fall of 2009. At that point, only the high school’s vocational wing will be used by students during the school day.

Also hanging in the balance is the arena’s funding, the responsibility of the Fergus Falls Hockey Association. The district asked the group to come up with half the project’s cost — roughly $1.5 million — by mid-October if it wanted the arena to be considered in the district’s building plans. As of last week, Masten said, the group had fundraised just over $1.1 million.

Masten described the situation as a chicken and the egg-type scenario, with district and city officials needing assurance from the Hockey Association that it can come up with the money, and some potential donors hesitant to give without approval from the school board and city council.

With the recommendations from ATS&R, all three parties will need to work to resolve the issue as soon as possible, said Superintendent Jerry Ness.

“By the end of November, we’d better have made a decision,” he said.

Yet another decision to make is what to do about traffic along Randolph Avenue as students cross from the renovated middle school to automotive, woodworking and career courses in the high school’s vocational wing.

“If there’s one concern about this whole project it’s kids walking across the street,” Ness said.

Staff with ATS&R have been busy with bids for the Cleveland project, Ness said, but will be working more on the middle school in coming weeks. Designs for the middle school are projected to be complete around Christmas, with the bid opening scheduled for mid-February.

As for the Cleveland site, workers will soon remove a swingset and other playground equipment to start work on the foundation for the new addition, Ness said.