A Message from Helen Stephenson, President:
Thank you to everyone who attended the Special General Meeting on May 9th. It will never cease to amaze me how supportive OCC members are of their club. In a nearly unanimous decision, the members voted YES to replacing the arena floor during the 2022 summer shut-down period at a budgeted project cost of $952,800.
For those who were unable to attend, the following is a brief summary of the meeting. You can download the slide deck from the meeting by clicking here.
The concrete floor in the arena is at the end of its lifespan. Around 75% of the floor is the original 1956 concrete. Over the years some additions and repairs have been made, resulting in 4 independent slabs with different cooling characteristics. These four slabs are moving independently of each other, creating ridges or valleys where they meet. We also have a problem with heaving in multiple locations resulting in high and low spots. More importantly, over the past few years, the combination of heaving and the old age of the concrete, has resulted in cracks in the floor.
Unfortunately, the cracking and spalling on the old sections of the floor continue at a constant rate. In fact, the cracking on sheets 7 & 8 has recently accelerated.
Right now, the ice thickness above the concrete varies between 3/4” and 2 1/2”. So yes, that means your game has been affected by these cracks. There is also a safety concern - it leads to hot spots in the ice that make certain parts of the floor more slippery than usual.
Our biggest worry is that the cracks have exposed brine pipes and the reinforcing steel in multiple locations. It is only a matter of time before we have a brine leak. In the event of a large brine pipe leak, or a leak during the winter, we risk losing our ice for one or two curling seasons; a leak in 1 pipe means we need to shut the entire system down as we can’t isolate the sheet with the leak - there are no shut off valves between sheets.
Once we identified the problem the Renovation Committee asked other clubs for their recommendations on engineers. We were able to find the highly qualified and experienced contractor Schilthuis and the engineering firm Kalos to help us.
After breaking down all the costs and expenses, the Finance Committee calculated it will cost about $952,800 dollars to replace the floor. Our General Manager successfully applied for a $419,400 Ontario Trillium Foundation grant, which will offset the cost for our members. The Finance Committee also managed to get a very favourable loan from First Ontario Credit Union.
To sum up, it is likely membership fees will be around $590 for one league next year (not incl. HST, prize levy, OCA fees & locker fees). There are a few costs we are still working on in the budget but the fees won’t be significantly more than what members paid last year for one league.
Thanks to your vote, we should be able to start the project in June and finish in time for an October 11th start to our season.
If you would like more information about the project please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Thank you to the committee members for all your hard work and hours dedicated to this project:
Finance Committee:
Harold Holloway (Co-Chair), Dan Savelli (Co-Chair), Paul Cameron, Doug Clark, James Francolini, Stuart Gunn, Tim McChesney, Helen Stephenson, Chris Wai
Renovation Committee:
Stuart Gunn (Chair), Doug Clark, Don Cook, Scott Foster, James Francolini, Cindy Harrison, Tim Hocking, Karl Mitchell, Larry O'Brecht, Dan Savelli, Helen Stephenson, Paul Sunderland, Chris Wai
Communication Committee:
Stuart Gunn (Chair), Pamela Anderson Khan, Doug Clark, James Francolini, Harold Holloway, Tim McChesney, Karl Mitchell, Dan Savelli, Paul Sunderland, Helen Stephenson
A very big thank you to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their generous support.