Rending of the expansion project of the Palmerston Arena. (Courtesy of the Town of Minto)Rending of the expansion project of the Palmerston Arena. (Courtesy of the Town of Minto)
Midwestern

Upgrades to the Palmerston arena well underway

Work is well underway on a new expansion for the Palmerston Arena.

Former North Perth Director of Parks and Rec, Steve Hardie, is helping oversee the work as project manager for the Town of Minto, and he says plenty of upgrades are coming.

"We are adding onto the existing arena to create four additional dressing rooms, a barrier for the washroom, a new wide corridor to access the dressing rooms and a new vestibule area with sliding doors at the side of the arena, as well as a little bit of parking to the site," explained Hardie.

"Outside the arena, we've added a practice diamond behind the arena for baseball. That includes a stone dust infield, backstop, a fence line along the infield and we're also updating the lighting on the Barb Wright Diamond to LED fixtures. So that'll all happen this year with a completion date projected for the end of August or the first part of September."

The Town of Minto received a $1.7 million grant last year from the Canada Infrastructure Fund to help fund the project, and Hardie notes the municipality is kicking in some cash to get it done.

"The town is putting forward $600,000 as their component to the project which is really good value. The overall cost is tagged at $2.415 million."

Hardie, who in his time before he retired as the North Perth Director of Parks and Rec, oversaw some major projects like the completion of the Steve Kerr Memorial Complex in Listowel.

He says a lot of work has already been done in Palmerston.

"The arena addition, the footings are being poured right now, so a lot of the site works are happening. At the practice diamond, we have the infield in place and the posts for the fencing, so things are progressing really quickly. We were able to get a lot of the ball diamond work done last year before winter."

 

Read More Local Stories