The future of the Memorial Arena in Goderich will be up to a new council.
The town has received a report that ammonia in the ice-making system represents a health and safety risk and should be removed.
According to CAO Larry McCabe, "part of the report was to remove the ammonia from the arena. There's currently ammonia in the system and when that's removed there'll be no ice in September. So that decision has been made by council so that will be looked into by staff and there's a health and safety concern if it should remain, so council's dealt with it by motion to remove it."
McCabe says the arena was built in 1949 so it's not a complete surprise that something would need repairing. $25,000 had been set aside to do that, and $14,000 of that will be required to remove the ammonia.
He also points out the current council is in a "lame duck" position so it cannot make any major decisions on the future of the arena.
Council wants to be able to consider all of the options before making a decision. Those options could range from renovating the Memorial Arena to attaching a second ice pad to the Maitland Recreation Centre.
McCabe adds, "It was always said that as long as the Memorial Arena had 40 hours or so of use and it was sort of the figure that made sense within the budget I believe at that time, it would remain. But that's a decision the new council is going to have to make."