Kahnawà:ke Sports Complex Re-Opening Delayed
Written by Paul Graif on 26 August 2020
Today’s announcement of the delayed opening of the Kahnawà:ke Sports Complex has complicated Kahnawà:ke Minor Hockey’s season Plans. The decision was made after an inspection determined that the ice-making system, which is the original one installed when the Sports Complex was built in 1987, needed replacing. This is Kahnawà:ke Minor Hockey President Peter Jacobs:
“Minor hockey is still working on trying to get our season going, we’re still going to proceed as if we are going to have a season. Our numbers are down, we only have about half of what we did last year.”
Ratsénhaienhs Harry Rice who is responsible for the Sports and Recreation portfolio says that he has spoken to Jacobs and he’s encouraged:
“On the bright side, I spoke to Pitt (Peter Jacobs) from Kahnawà:ke Minor Hockey and he said he’s pretty sure that they’ll be able to salvage the hockey season for the kids.”
Jacobs saying that the ice situation depends on the figure skating season and is willing to work with the organization to share the ice:
“It’s going to be a little juggling, schedules back and forth so we can get all these kids on the ice whether it’s hockey or the figure skaters.”
Chief Rice says the arena says that without the pandemic, the ice would have no doubt been fixed on time:
“The ice was still in when Covid hit, it was only after the ice came out that they knew about the problem and by that time everything was shut down.”
Without a guarantee that ice could be maintained throughout the season the delay was announced with the work being contracted to Snowdon Quebec, Inc. The approved project cost is $64,460 with preliminary work already underway with on-site work starting Tuesday, September 1st.
