Although you can't tell going past it, there is a whole lot of work happening at the 79-year-old South Porcupine Arena. Now known as the Carlo Cattarello Arena, and referred to by locals as simply 'The Barn', the progress is 'right on schedule' according to arena manager Burt St. Amour.
Currently, work is being done on the rink's playing surface to install new ice making infrastructure as well as an underground heating system.
St. Amour, who has been on the job since 1982, said when the last cement floor was taken out back in 2001, he took a measurement from the southeast corner of the rink (where most skaters hop on) to centre ice. There was a 16 inch difference.
"That's how much it heaved."
Eight truckloads of sand needed to be brought in to level off the surface.
The previous cement floor had been in place since around 1972 or 1973, estimated St. Amour. The entire floor was poured by hand, one wheelbarrow at a time, and it impressively lasted around 30 years.
Before that time, all rinks had sand floors.
"They had one inch steel pipes, and they used to pump ammonia through the actual pipes. Sometimes you'd get a little leak, and you'd smell a bit of ammonia, but it wasn't a big deal. It was always cold in here, that stuff would freeze right away. So what they use now is plastic pipes and what is called a brine solution, a mixture of water and salt. What it does is lower the freezing temperature of water."
St. Amour had some big apprehensions about taking on the project.
"I'll be honest, I didn't want to do it this year."
The arena applied for government grants, and were successful to the tune of $100,000. Goldcorp matched that amount, and other major contributions came from Schumacher Day, Lakeshore Gold, and James Toyota.
"We have a lot of businesses that made donations. We have a lot of businesses that are giving us a lot of in-kind stuff. A lot of companies just give it to us, they don't want it advertised, like if I need to rent something, they'll say 'here take this, just make sure you put fuel back in it' kind of thing."
St. Amour said there is a lot of planning that needed to be done, and he wanted to make sure he had the funds to complete the project. Ideally the upgrades would have been done next summer, but those plans hit a snag.
"The government comes back and says part of the deal is 'you've got to have the project completed by March 2018', so I had to do it this summer, or lose the money."
The first phase of the upgrades was the installation of new LED lights over the playing surface. The new floor is the second phase.
The Carlo Cattarello Arena in South Porcupine. Andrew Autio for TimminsTodayLater phases will seek to improve accessibility, a topic St. Amour said he hears about often, but one that is quite costly.
"Everybody thinks there is just money out there to get that staff. It's not out there. They gave me $100,000 but they don't specify what it should be used on. And we always tell people, if I don't have an arena floor, and I can't produce ice, you won't have to worry about handicap access, because it won't be here."
The arena floor is being meticulously leveled before the concrete is poured. Though you'd never notice it while skating, St. Amour said some portions of the ice were eight inches thick, while others were only two.
The upgrades aim to keep the only independently run arena in the municipality running for the foreseeable future.
"We're putting in a heating system down here first, so the frost doesn't penetrate. No rinks do that around here. We do it here. There's insulation that goes on top of that, and then we put in the ice pipes."
Since the pipes are only four inches apart, there will eventually be over 10 miles of pipe snaking around the surface. He shrugged off an often talked about notion that The Barn has the best ice in the area, saying it might be a lot of nostalgia talking.
St. Amour said the ice should be ready to go by Thanksgiving at the latest, which will make the 26 or so men's league teams who play at the arena each winter extremely happy.
"It better be, or I won't have a job," he laughed.
