{"id":6344,"date":"2024-01-05T15:08:45","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T19:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=6344"},"modified":"2024-01-07T10:02:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-07T14:02:34","slug":"arena-shutdown-at-queens-place-forces-groups-to-search-for-ice-time-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/01\/05\/arena-shutdown-at-queens-place-forces-groups-to-search-for-ice-time-elsewhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Arena shutdown at Queens Place forces groups to search for ice time elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lights

Queens Place ice surface. Photo Ed Halverson<\/p><\/div>\n

By Rick Conrad<\/strong><\/p>\n

Groups who use the arena at Queens Place Emera Centre are juggling their January schedules as the region replaces a vital piece of ice-making equipment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Region of Queens, which operates Queens Place, announced on Dec. 29 that it had to cancel all on-ice activities immediately, until a new condenser could be installed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The municipality had already planned to replace the condenser early in January, but it was forced to close the rink earlier than expected.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a September council meeting, councillors approved the purchase of a new $255,000 condenser. Staff told councillors that the refrigeration equipment began to malfunction in late summer or early September.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cimco Refrigeration was hired to repair a minor ammonia leak, but found several more problems. Only the arena is affected by the shutdown, though the indoor walking track is closed until Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The region hasn\u2019t given a timeline for when the rink will reopen. But it said it will post notices online when the work is completed and the ice is reinstalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a release late Friday afternoon, the region said work began on Jan. 2 and the new equipment has been installed.<\/p>\n

“The refrigeration plant has resumed operation and staff are currently working towards reinstating the arena ice which will take several days,” the release said. No one from the municipality was available to comment.<\/p>\n

Melissa Robinson is an executive member with the Queens County Blades. The group has almost 40 skaters who have had to look for ice time elsewhere with the closure. The club also holds a Learn to Skate program for youth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Their members would typically use the Queens Place ice surface twice a week, four hours on Wednesdays and four and a half hours on Sundays.<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been able to use other rinks in Shelburne and Bridgewater, Robinson said. And some of their members have gone as far as St. Margarets Bay.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely have lost ice time, because as an example the senior skaters would skate for two hours on a Sunday,\u201d Robinson said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTypically they only skate an hour and a half at other clubs. \u2026 Our higher level skaters are on the ice three to four to five days a week. So they\u2019ll do two days at Queens Place and then they\u2019ll scatter out to the other rinks with the other clubs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She said the club had to cancel a scheduled Skate Canada assessment day at Queens Place.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s been a little bit of disruption, definitely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Robinson says the club\u2019s skaters have adapted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just moving along accordingly. It\u2019s unfortunate they can\u2019t skate at Queens Place, but they can adapt at another rink and that\u2019s just what we\u2019ll have to do in the meantime and move along.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Robinson and Terrena Parnell, president of the Queens County Minor Hockey Association, said they were notified in advance of the planned closure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Parnell said by email that while the timing isn\u2019t ideal, \u201c<\/span>Queens County Minor Hockey understands equipment can fail at any time and needs to be replaced.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The association has 87 players, in addition to 29 members who are board members, coaches, managers or bench staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hope is that with weather co-operating and no unforeseen issues with the installation of the new condenser,” Parnell said, “QPEC will be up and running quickly and we will have lost less ice time than was scheduled with the original replacement dates.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Parnell said that teams are playing away games in the meantime \u201cand preparing for the reopening of QPEC to bring practices and home games back to the arena.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/arenaclosurejan524.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rick Conrad Groups who use the arena at Queens Place Emera Centre are juggling their January schedules as the region replaces a vital piece of ice-making equipment. The Region of Queens, which operates Queens Place, announced on Dec. 29 that it had to cancel all on-ice activities immediately, until a new condenser could be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[1562,1563,1561,1549,1550,51,351,24,195],"class_list":["post-6344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-arena","tag-arena-closure","tag-melissa-robinson","tag-queens-county-blades","tag-queens-county-minor-hockey-association","tag-queens-place","tag-queens-place-emera-centre","tag-region-of-queens","tag-terrena-parnell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6344"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6353,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6344\/revisions\/6353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}