A city staff report is recommending West Ferris Arena be decommissioned and demolished.
It’ll be up for discussion at a special committee meeting of council next week.
The report notes the new Community and Recreation Centre is nearly finished, West Ferris Arena is nine years past its life expectancy, and there is no identified operational or other need for the arena.
“Since 2016, the city has maintained the West Ferris Arena through a targeted monitoring program,” states the report. “This program was explicitly designed as a temporary or interim measure to ensure continued safe operation until the facility could be replaced. These measures were never intended to extend the life of the facility indefinitely. The planning and decision points to date have consistently been that upon opening of a new replacement facility, the West Ferris Arena would be safely decommissioned, demolished, and the site repurposed.”
If council wants to look at salvaging the rink, officials say the total potential cost for a full suite of building condition assessments and studies is between $250,000 and $600,000.
They also say preliminary work with the Sam Jacks Complex Master Plan has not identified a need to rehabilitate or maintain the facility and reimagines the site with outdoor facilities.
