Dave Perry hits nail on head with Memorial Arena comments

[southy]

It's not often that I will agree with Dave Perry, however, his letter to the editor in today's Herald hits the nail on the head. He has called a spade a spade and he is absolutely correct. Why would we demolish this prized possession? The history of the facility is priceless. Who is driving the decision to demolish????

[Tero]

I could not agree more! I don't think I've EVER supported anything on the same side as Perry, but in this case, I'll be heading up the demonstrations if there's talk of losing Memorial!!!

Further to that - one of our BIGGEST summer draws here is the hockey school. What would we do with one less sheet of ice? It does not make sense to me. Then again, the price tag of the roof does not make sense to me either....

[XT225]

I believe that when we voted on the SOEC, it was under the understanding that Memorial had a very limited lifespan (10 to 15 years or so comes to mind) and would have to demolished or replaced. With the addition of the extra ice rink that came with the SOEC, we wont be down one rink (from what we had before), should memorial have to go. I agree that its a shame but how much money do you want to throw at such an old building. The beams have already undergone major work. Dave is getting quite vocal lately; maybe wanting to take another run for mayor perhaps?

[fluffy]

The Memorial Arena is basically just a roof sitting on the ground, the support beams have already undergone major surgery to extend their lifespan, it will eventually suffer the same fate as the old SuperValu downtown where the cost of life support increases to the point of becoming prohibitive. I'm all for hanging on to our history where feasible, but we have to look at long term costs as part of the equation.

[twobits]

Nostalgia is great until fiscal realities slap you in the forehead. Memorial being torn down is not something new. As XT said in his post, this was foreshadowed several years ago both when the SOEC was built and also when the last very expensive "temporary solution" reinforcements to strenghten the arched beams were done. For those that do not remember, the lateral support in the structure was diminished to the point that 60 winds caused the roof to sway an entire foot. It was speculated that the building could collapse in 100k winds.
Sure, I like the building and the history that comes with it but IMO I think the funds needed to buy it a few more years could be far better utilized elsewhere in the community not to mention the building runs something like a 350k/yr operating deficit.

[Tero]

that all makes sense then if the building is truly on its last legs... it does not make sense to throw money in the toilet... however, I am curious about the less ice for hockey school. ALL of the rinks are used ALL summer right now.

[XT225]

It's not often that I agree with a couple of posters on here but today I sure am. This subject was discussed on here back in November 2011 and I think it was quite clear then that the extra rink (community rink) was thrown in to offset the impending demolition of Memorial in the future and loss of ice space. It makes sense to not throw good money after bad and lets face it...when we voted for the SOEC, we had two ice rinks at that time (Memorial and McLaren); now we have 4 and may soon only have 3 but thats still ONE up. With zero tax increase for this year we simply cant afford to redo the roof. I'm not sure where David Perry was coming from when he brought that up.

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[glassmaster]

It's not often that I agree with a couple of posters on here but today I sure am. This subject was discussed on here back in November 2011 and I think it was quite clear then that the extra rink (community rink) was thrown in to offset the impending demolition of Memorial in the future and loss of ice space. It makes sense to not throw good money after bad and lets face it...when we voted for the SOEC, we had two ice rinks at that time (Memorial and McLaren); now we have 4 and may soon only have 3 but thats still ONE up. With zero tax increase for this year we simply cant afford to redo the roof. I'm not sure where David Perry was coming from when he brought that up.

As another poster mentioned ... David Perry has been pretty vocal lately. It certainly appears that he is setting the stage to run for Mayor again. His comments on the Memorial Arena seem to grasping at straws to focus attention on himself. The long term costs to keep the Memorial just don't make sense.