Sedgewick Town Council approved a temporary fix to the arena roof issue at a special meeting held on December 30th. The job was awarded to Premier Fire and Flood Restoration Inc. who will manage the project and work with Phoenix Roofing and a structural engineer to add additional purlins that will allow for the arena to open for full use in a matter of weeks. The work is designed to bring the structure up to current Alberta Building Code standards of allowing for a load of 34 pounds per square foot (psf) versus 29 psf which was code when the rink was built in 1992.

Council expects the temporary fix to be a part of the permanent solution which will be planned to align with a future off-season when the arena would have less users. It is unknown at this point when these permanent repairs will be made as it will be largely dependent on ability to finance the project as well as regular monitoring/testing of the purlins.

The current repairs, that are budgeted to come in under $250,000, are expected to commence on January 7th and could take as little as three weeks to complete. This would allow for the arena to reopen in early February with the facility continuing to be used in March as a host site for the Atom ‘A’ Provincial Championships as well as for the #REDNEK MusicFest concert starring Gord Bamford in April.