Goderich Memorial Arena renovations to move forward

BY BOB MONTGOMERY

Goderich Town Council approved a motion at this week’s council meeting to move forward with renovations to the Goderich Memorial Arena.

 

The ice was taken out of the arena a few years ago because of leaking and Goderich Mayor Trevor Bazinet says they’ve had several meetings with town residents since to determine what to do with the building. This week’s meeting was the final presentation of the suggestions they received from local residents and service clubs and anyone else who had some suggestions for the future of the building.

 

Bazinet says one thing that was made very clear by local residents is they definitely wanted the building to remain where it is. So the question going forward is how can they renovate it to be as useful as possible to as many people as possible. One point that was made very clear is it won’t be a second arena again. Bazinet says if they get to the point where the town needs a second arena, the ice pad would be added to the current recreation centre, but they’re not at that point now.

 

Bazinet says there is a wide range of options to consider. For one thing, there is a shortage of gymnasiums in Goderich and the ones they do have are being used to capacity. Furthermore, there’s a need for winter training facilities for baseball, soccer and field hockey that would all require a turf surface. He says there’s also a lot of demand for more shuffleboard, which is being played in town by seniors and not-so senior players as well. 

 

There have also been several suggestions for what people would like to see done to the auditorium. So Bazinet says it’s very clear that Goderich residents want the arena to remain there and they want it for a number of activities and, he says, without it, they wouldn’t have a community centre.

 

Bazinet says they would have to consider a number of options to raise funding for the renovations. One they’re looking at right now has been proposed by some of the service clubs in town. He says council deferred a motion to get the building back open at this point because a number of service clubs have expressed an interest in joining forces and putting a proposal together that would allow them to work with the town and assume some of the ownership of the facility and manage part of the facility on behalf of the town. Bazinet says the town would like to work with the service clubs, because they know that when the service clubs make money, the community makes money, so they’re waiting to hear from the service clubs before they move forward.