A mechanical problem and a Legionella outbreak have kept Orillia’s Rotary Place closed since early November.
The issues knocked the dual-pad arena at the West Orillia Sports Complex out of commission until Wednesday, when the facility reopened.
“We got down to one arena, and we crammed as much as we could in there. People were able to get neighbouring arenas as well, but it did have a significant effect,” said Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac.
Orillia minor hockey is relieved to have the arena back but says the damage has already been done.
“This will be the third year in a row that because of COVID or the pandemic and now the broken rinks that Orillians haven’t been able to have a predictable hockey season,” said Orillia Minor Hockey President Steve Fagan.
The Orillia Terriers organization has seen parents pull their kids and take them to other hockey centres or leave the sport altogether due to the lack of available ice time caused by the closure.
“Somehow coming out of COVID we actually had a larger membership than pre-COVID. Unfortunately, that is not going to be the case at the end of the year which hurts us,” added a disappointed Fagan.
The head of Orillia Minor Hockey says with only one other rink in the city they’ve struggled to get their teams on the ice more than once per week since Rotary Place’s closure. A frustrating reality for parents, but the organization is trying to remind those concerned that the association is simply a tenant of the arena, not an operator.
“We probably lost 40 hours of ice time per week every week this rink was shut down,” said Fagan.
Teams in the North Central Predators AAA organization typically use Rotary Place once per week. They’re relieved that’s all they missed out on.
“I couldn’t imagine what these other associations went through with trying to satisfy all the needs from all their players, the figure skaters and the girls’ hockey,” said Predators President Roger Crandell.
The City of Orillia says they had to address the problem safely and the right way, but it’s a great relief to have more ice available for its residents. They now have a short-term fix in place, which has the two-pad arena functioning again but says a long-term solution could take 18 months to get ready.
“The works we have now work on air vs water so there’s no chance of Legionella developing so we’ve knocked that out completely and longer term we are looking at the same thing to get a permanent solution,” explained McIsaac.
While Orillia minor hockey has already lost significant dollars by having to shrink their annual tournament, future events like February’s Ontario Hockey League AAA showcase can now be salvaged.
“It would’ve affected the girls hockey tournament too, which is coming up next month, which is a huge impact also for the city for hotels, restaurants and businesses,” said Crandell.
Just one of the two rinks are open thus far at Rotary place. The blue rink welcomed a goalie school today for its first activity in months, while the green rink will not reopen until next week on Monday, January 2nd.
“Everybody just wants to get back to the rink,” said Crandell.
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