The new ice plant for the Castor Beaverdome took another step forward on Oct. 11, when council approved a major expenditure for the project.
Council has seen the plant room project several times over the last few months, since the Beaverdome was assessed and administration was notified that the plant may, or may not, make another season.
Administration has gone as far with the project as they can, and council has selected a vendor to do the work, CIMCO Refrigeration, however, before anything else can proceed the project needs to be engineered.
The cost of the engineering work that needs to be done is around $45,000, which will be done by Edmonton-based ISL Engineering.
Engineers from the company will investigate the site of the proposed plant room, coordinate with local utility companies to conduct the tie-ins and produce drawings for the project.
Whil council has not determined where funding will come for the full, and much-needed, project, but administration has applied for a “Green Initiative Grant” from the federal government, which would, if approved, pay for a significant portion of the arena project, including the engineering costs.
Unfortunately, it won’t be known for several months whether that grant is approved or not.
Due to the large dollars attached to the project, the project must be tendered.
The tendering process will also be taken care of by the engineering firm with the tender done on a grid process, so council is able to go with the chosen vendor and not the lowest bid.
If the process proceeds past the planning stages, the plan will be to have the construction done and the plant in place in time for the 2023/2024 hockey season.
