Goderich Mayor Myles Murdock (Photo by Bob Montgomery)Goderich Mayor Myles Murdock (Photo by Bob Montgomery)
Midwestern

Goderich hoping to find use for old arena

Goderich council is looking over possibilities for the former Memorial Arena on McDonald Street.

Mayor Myles Murdock explains the arena was shut down for safety reasons in 2018 after the ammonia system broke down and now they're asking for expressions of interest.

“We're trying to find out who may be interested in using the facility for what purposes, for what length of time and what amenities or whatever they would require in order to make it work. And then whether or not they're prepared to do some fund-raising or commit some funds to it," Murdock said.

Murdock adds the town can't afford to operate the facility at a loss.

Murdock believes there should be some way to use the entire building. He says the town doesn't have a community centre.

“We don't have anything that really seats more than 320 people. So the advantage of the arena floor is that you can have over a thousand people on the floor and then we can get about 340 people upstairs where we normally run bingos," noted Murdock.

So, Murdock says they're looking for ways they can develop the downstairs part, and the question is what's the best use for them to make it a multi-use facility. He says he hopes a final decision will be made sometime this year.

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