The curling season is over. At least, that is, at the Glen Harper Curling Centre after the catastrophic failure of the facility’s ice plant.
“What happened was right around the first weekend of January, we had a power outage at the rink and an alarm that the ice plant had shut off,” said Brent Dellebuur, president of the club.
Upon inspection, it appeared that a seal in the compressor was blown so, naturally, the club ordered a replacement part.
But when a refrigeration crew went to install the new part, they realized the true extent of the damage.
“It’s caused a few sleepless nights for sure,” Dellebuur said. “We’re exploring all sorts of options here as to how we are going to try to get this thing repaired.”
While the Municipality of North Cowichan still owns the land and the building, the club is responsible for the building’s contents so while hopeful, he’s doesn’t believe the club will get any help from them. They’ll have to do it on their own.
“We’re looking at a pretty daunting task here to try to raise that kind of money,” Dellebuur said. “It’s going to be, we figure, somewhere in excess of $100,000 for us to repair this thing.”
With the COVID restrictions in place, no bonspiels had been planned at the rink, but Dellebuur said it was “a huge blow” to the league.
The curling club’s board of directors met Jan. 17 and were able to redirect many members to either Lake Cowichan or Kerry Park to curl because “it wasn’t feasible to continue on this year” at the Sherman Road rink.
Instead of looking for a quick fix, the board has decided to take the time to make sure they get the right plan going forward so they can make the best decision for the members of the club, Dellebuur said.
Curling at the Sherman Road club will likely resume in the fall. Until then, a fundraising has begun. To donate email duncancurling@shaw.ca