Although opening about a month later than normal, the skating rink at Broda Sportsplex was ready for skaters on November 10.
Holes in the methanol tubes embedded in the arena’s cement floor were blamed for the delay in opening and as a temporary fix a product called Rink Seal Pro was added to the lines.
The Rink Seal Pro worked amazingly well, said Kev Sumner, Kamsack’s recreation director. “Within 24 hours the holes had sealed.”
Sumner said he and the technicians who had arrived November 1 to apply the product had assumed that the problem had been “lots of small leaks and one big one.”
By the next day, half the lines were freezing and the technicians “having done their magic” were gone the day after that, he said, adding that the current warm weather being experienced meant that the freezing process was slower than normal.
“We’re really pleased with the job that they’ve done,” he said. Hockey practice began November 10.
“I want to thank the community for being so understanding,” he said.
Although costing about $25,000 for having the product applied in the tubes by the company’s representatives, the fix is only a temporary, he said. It is guaranteed for a year.
A maintenance product costing less than half the cost of the initial product would have to be applied in the second year if no other permanent remedy is approved by then, he said. Town council will have to decide what it wishes to do: either dig up the concrete floor to replace all the tubing and then re-pour concrete, or merely cover the tubing with sand like the cooling tubes in the curling rink are covered.
Curlers were on the ice on November 3, he said, adding that the mixed curling league starts to play today (November 17).
