Apr 2010

The City of Portage la Prairie’s cost estimates for keeping the Centennial Arena open as an ice rink are way off, according to a new report compiled by a representative of the ice user groups in Portage.

Shane Moffatt, who worked in conjunction with the Portage Minor Hockey Association and other ice user groups, spent about nine months compiling the Portage Centennial West Rink Business Proposal and Cost Comparisons study, which he plans to present to city council at its meeting April 12.

“I’m hoping city council will have a really hard look at it,” Moffatt said in an interview Wednesday.

According to Moffatt’s study, fixing the west rink in Centennial Arena would cost just over $54,370.

That is a big difference compared to what the city’s Department of Recreation and Leisure Services had estimated in its Portage Centennial Arena Assessment and Ice Demand Study, which was released in August 2009 and reviewed by the Portage Regional Recreation Authority.

Moffatt also looked at the city’s study and found the cost estimates to be exorbitant.

“What I found in there were some numbers that were very high,” he said.

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