The arena in St. Pierre is ready to go for the hockey season despite a major renovation project which they were forced to complete this summer.

Councillor Raymond Maynard explains following an inspection in spring, they were forced to build a new outbuilding for their ammonia ice plant to get it out of their zamboni room for safety reasons. The plant was taken out of the arena building itself and moved into a new building with pipes going back into the arena. 

"While they did that, we upgraded the plant and got a new electronic control panel with a whole bunch of alarm systems in case we get issues which," notes Maynard," when they first turned on the plant, the first night there were three alarms that happened and that’s just because the alarms were set up a little too sensitive so now they have been tweaked and everything is running as it should."

This all stems from a deadly incident in B.C. last fall where arena staff members were killed due to an ammonia leak. Ammonia is a colourless gas with suffocating fumes, commonly used in refrigeration systems in arenas. 

The total cost of the project was about $150,000 and Maynard adds $43,000 of it was paid through a Community Places grant. He says the project went quite smoothly.

"The project went extremely well, it was ahead of time. The plant is up and running and the ice is actually all up and going right now. We’ll be ready for our first practice," says Maynard who adds that first practice is this Tuesday evening. 

Read More: Deadly Incident In B.C. Having Impact On A Local Arena