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Tour given of the new exterior ice plant at the Stettler Recreation Centre

Old ice plant room has been converted into a maintenance space to repair items from around the rink

The new $1.3 million ice plant at the Stettler Recreation Centre is up and running.

The facility on the west end of the building replaces the nearly 24-year-old indoor ice plant.

Parks and Services foreman Allan King says “the new system has variable frequencies for ice-cooling, uses less power than before, and can cool down the concrete pads to be ready for ice within 24 hours.”

The old plant, which could only start or stop, and was having trouble keeping up with cooling demands due to the need for a new condenser. Ice plants only have a life capacity of around 20 years, and the recreation centre’s was only designed to service the twin arenas as they were built in 1993.

A detailed energy audit done by Williams Engineering Canada in December 2016 noted “In general, the mechanical systems appear to be in good to poor condition. One major issue of note concerns the operational condition of the original arena ice plant, which is currently close to failure. The main component in need of replacement is the ice plant. It is not performing as it should and may or may not make it through the current season. Replacement is necessary.”

Before deciding what type of ice plant the Stettler Recreation Centre should have, staff looked to arenas around the region and liked what they saw at the Glengarry arena in Edmonton. The town went with the separate building ammonia-cooled plant they saw there, as it is the cheapest refrigerant on the market when compared to freon-cooled systems.

There have been concerns about the safety of ammonia-cooled ice plants since three workers died at an arena in Fernie, B.C. in October of last year. The SRC’s exterior plant has reduced the ammonia charge from 1300 lbs to 90 lbs, meaning much less ammonia is used within the recreation centre to cool the ice. The decision to separate the plant from the building also helped avoid added safety code renovations, as the old room did not meet current fire and ventilation standards.

According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, ammonia is very toxic, and can be fatal if inhaled. It’s also corrosive, and can causes severe skin burns and eye damage. The colourless gas does have an ammonia-like odour, and is also highly flammable, as well as an explosive hazard when pressurized in high concentrations.

Town council approved the purchase in April 2017.

Funding for this project came from a number of areas, including $652,200 from the Recreation Agreement Reserve, $266,900 from the 2017 Recreation Agreement funding, and $375,465 from the Town’s General Reserve. The Town of Stettler also moved $93,300 from the County of Stettler’s 2018 Recreation Allocation, back to their general reserve to finalize the transaction. Finally, the $1,294,565.00 figure passed by council last spring also included a $50,000 contingency fund.

Parks and Recreation department may request funding for a water collection device to gather excess water from the plant to water the trees and plants around Stettler in the future.



landin.chambers@stettlerindependent.com

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