Goderich Mayor Says Reports Presented At Their Next Council Meeting Will Explain Why The Memorial Arena Had To Be Closed

by Bob Montgomery

Goderich Mayor Trevor Bazinet says they'll be presenting reports at their next council meeting that will explain in more detail why the Memorial Arena had to be closed until further notice.

The reports will also go to the Memorial Arena Task Force and their terms of reference is to either create a vision for the building that is there now or should they be considering building a new facility. That vision needs to meet the needs of the people that use it now as well as future generations who would be using it.

Bazinet says another concern is they don't know how long the arena will be closed. If they decide to rebuild, it will be a lengthy closer, so they're going have staff look into how they can facilitate community events at all town-owned spaces and specifically opportunities at the Maitland Recreation Centre. The Sky Harbour Room for smaller events, the gymnasium and the rink level for events requiring large spaces, including the cost for boards that cover the ice to create a floor and what spaces might be available for liquor licensing events.

Bazinet says they really want to make sure they get this right and provide something that the residents of Goderich will be able to use for years. They're going to have a charrette process, just as they did with the downtown, where people can provide their input into what they want to see the facility become. They want to hear from the groups that currently use the facility, but they also from other groups that might want to use the facility for other things. He says they've already heard from minor soccer and minor baseball that they'd like to have an indoor facility where they can have training in the winter months. They'd like to provide that for their young people and their aging demographic and hope that it will last another seventy years just as the current facility did.