Municipal officials are narrowing the scope of a proposed arena feasibility study.
Councillor Michael Bondy’s motion first appeared in May and originally included several potential outcomes, including refurbishing Memorial Arena with a second ice pad, constructing a new twin-pad facility, building a larger OHL-sized arena with additional community ice surfaces, or taking no action at all.
Bondy withdrew the motion at the May meeting to make revisions before bringing it back to council.
“The point of this is that council will have more than one option,” said Bondy.
The options council voted to include in the feasibility study include a new twin-pad arena featuring a 2,500-seat rink to accommodate the Maroons and a second community ice pad. The second option would examine a 5,000-plus-seat arena capable of accommodating a future OHL franchise, along with two or three additional community ice pads.
Councillor Brock McGregor successfully introduced a friendly amendment to avoid limiting the seating capacity of the smaller community rinks.
“We didn’t want to restrict the motion to saying just 200 to 300 seats in those secondary pads to make sure they are still usable in the community,” said McGregor.
“Making sure it is open enough to elicit community feedback to meet the actual ice usage in Chatham-Kent.”
The feasibility study is expected to cost approximately $200,000, with funding coming from money already approved through the municipality’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan.
