It's going to be two more weeks before Elliot Lake City Council decides what to do with it's 50-year-old Centennial Arena on Spruce Avenue.
After earlier declaring the old building derelict, council is now taking a second look at plans to maintain indoor ice there while the city continues to look at ways to build Centennial Arena's eventual replacement, likely in a Community Hub.
"The cost that came in for the new structure prefab would have been a little bit higher than we originally anticipated," Elliot Lake CAO Daniel Gagnon told city council. "We were hoping it would be in the $2- to $3-million range and we might be able to eke out some grants for that."
"But the cost to do a proper process involving the existing pad and a new roof would be closer to $5-million" he said during Monday night's meeting.
It would cost $500,000 to repair the arena's old wooden roof truss structure along with some wooden support posts, building structural engineer Alvin Olar, of Tulloch Engineering, told council.
After examining Centennial Arena for the past couple of months, Olar told council repairing the trusses and support posts would be a Band-Aid fix that would extend the existing building's life up to five years.
"That's without putting a new roof on," Olar said. "That's just patching the old roof to try to slow it down." He added, "If we were to go with that option (option one) we could save all of the season this year. We think we can have these repairs completed by August or mid-September."
Gagnon said option two, to replace the existing building with a pre-manufactured structure would cost $5.3-million but there would be no money for the interior, the rink, the canteen or change rooms. It would also mean losing the first half of the coming ice season.
The third option, to do nothing, would mean the city would have no indoor ice service for at least the next three years, at best. Along with that, arena demolition would cost $400,000.
Eventually, council ruled that out and continued took at options one and two.
Coun. Chris Patrie said his biggest worry is that more exploration of the old arena could increase the price of any Band-Aid fix considerably.
"If we find in two years we're not getting the hub funding, we're screwed," said Patrie.
Councillors decided to give staff and the structural engineer another two weeks to do a more detailed study, a structural assessment, at a cost of $75,000.
They want to find out exactly how much repair work would be needed to make Centennial Arena safe for continuous use while Elliot Lake looks at its future options. As an assurance, Gagnon said Tulloch Engineering has consistently under promised and over-delivered.
"I want Centennial Arena re-opened this year if at all possible." Patrie said.
Council should continue to look at its second option, that of replacing everything at Centennial from the ground up, with the the exception of the front entrance, the ice plant and the change rooms, he added.
Tulloch structural engineer Alvin Olar will be back in front of City Council at its first meeting in June with a full structural analysis. It will come with a plan that will recommend repairs for Centennial Arena to insure it is safe for continued use.