Built in 1969 at Woodstock Fairgrounds; life span now in debate
Decisions .
. . Decisions . . . Decisions.
It would
have been in 1993 when then Woodstock City Council decided it was
time to replace the Downtown rink called the Perry Street Arena, with a new
twin pad to be built at the south end of Woodstock on Finkle Street at the site
of the developing and quickly expanding community complex. I remember those
council discussions and was present when the vote was made to finance through
budget time (Tax collecting and utilizing development charges saved) and a
debenture (loan), this new recreation facility would be a reality and would
also include a gymnastics club and a community hall.
Margaret Munnoch was mayor then.
In that era, there was a consulting company called RE Winter & Associates who wrote in 1990 that Woodstock needed to prepare to replace the ice palace nicknamed the PerryDome. The thickness of the ice varied greatly as the floor was heaving and perma-frost was so bad the City recreation department stopped removing the ice in the summer as it would likely mean the end of its viability.
Years later, as chair of the recreation advisory committee, I prepared a power point
100-year history on the Perry Street Arena which I narrated at the sports wall
of fame ceremony in 2014.
Current
Woodstock CAO David Creery was the deputy city engineer in the early 1990s, and
he would certainly recall the feasibility study conducted by the combined
efforts of Burke-Oliver and the architects called MacLellan Jaunkalns &
Miller.
The City had
secured just over $1 million in a provincial grant, and the community and its user groups had raised
a bundle of bucks to permit the City to go forward with its investment.
Constructed by Waterloo-based Ball Brothers, the Southwood Arenas would open in August of 1996. The Perry Street oval was demolished (levelled) that same summer and many arena fans obtained the seats and exterior bricks as souvenirs.
Now, in 2022
this community is nearing the end of the life cycle for the Civic Centre Arena.
There are many reasons why, beginning with and including these factors: ice
surface is too small, not enough change rooms (4), existing change rooms are
too small, lack of AODA compliance for accessibility, a low ceiling, lack of
land ownership by the City, and an overall change in user groups needs.
The Civic
Centre opened in 1969 with a 180’ x 80’ ice surface. The main ice pad at the
complex is 200 x 100, and the NHL standard is 200 x 85. At the beginning in the
Civic, seating was basically ball diamond bleachers chained to the north wall, but
about 30 years ago (give or take) permanent concrete was poured with wooden
benches affixed for seating purposes. Without back support, this arrangement is
still not comfortable for fans and parents who spend dozens of hours in this
ice cube every autumn and winter.
If you chatted with Darren Hall, who is the manager of both Woodstock facilities, he would tell you that the compressor and all ice making equipment at the fairgrounds frozen pond has additional life span. Another concrete item to point out mind you, is that there are cracks and chips in the floor which were seen by myself and members of the city’s recreation advisory committee during a recent visit.
However, the
most recent Recreation Needs Master Plan as penned by London-based Montieth-Brown
(www.mbpc.ca) consultants last year (Dec. 9 council agenda; remember as that could
be an exam question later), indicated that the deficiencies of the Civic Centre
Arena and its accompanying lack of surrounding land ownership by the City at
that location to expand or build new, would indicate that the Civic rink was
seeing its days numbered. The interesting footnote always to the Montieth-Brown
document will be that two of its cornerstone writers and researchers were from
Woodstock in Anand Desai and Cole Roddick.
Community members, and most certainly other candidates for council, should know some of the past directions in recreation locally as you must know what the future could be.
I add this thought without knowing who might be reading this prose, that I
believe the Woodstock ag. society is certainly overdue for their own in-house
long-term master plan, but that is their concern.
Also submitted
here for your perusal are copies of Sentinel-Review stories published in February
of 1993 – written by me. It should be noted that the Southwood main paid has seating for 1,950 and with standing room could attain 2,500 capacity.
Construction of Community Complex is 1995
Picture of Perry St demolition and Southwood construction are likely from Woodstock Museum archives.
LINKS:https://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/news/local-news/woodstock-looks-at-replacing-civic-centre
At A Front Lawn -- Little Library Box
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