It just wasn’t meant to be for the Northland Power Curling Centre in 2020-21.
The pandemic had meant the early end of the season for Twin Rivers Curling Club as they closed in mid-January and removed the curling ice.
But that was not the end of the bad luck. Council heard Monday that a boiler failure hit the facility in February — coinciding with minus-40 temperatures around the same time.
In a presentation to council, the city’s fleet and maintenance manager, Seton Winterholt, reported that on Feb. 9, the boilers at Northland Power Curling Rink failed and needed to be replaced.
According to his memo the issue involved two Viessman Boilers, which supply heat for hot water, provide in-floor heating to dressing rooms and coil heating in air handling units.
River City Plumbing and Heating was called in and determined the cause was condensation in the combustion air intake of the boilers, which dripped directly onto the control boards and, in Winterholt’s words, “fried the controls.” That knocked both the boilers out of commission.
Winterholt told council this condensation might have been due to a design flaw. He said they were working with the contractor doing the install to “avoid future condensation like that.”
One new boiler was installed, with the other boiler was able to be repaired. Temporary heat was also provided while this went on, which kept the restaurant operating.
Costs came to $18,626, with an additional $2,500 estimated to be added to finalize the work. Because these were unplanned expenses, there is a budget impact. Winterholt also said they are in the process of examining an insurance claim for the damage.
