Arena needs significant work soon

A few new pipes are a temporary fix at the Schmitz-Maki Ice Arena, but definitely not a long-term solution to a problem that could put future high school hockey games on ice, so to speak.

Earlier this year, it was discovered a certain section of the ice was melting, due to leaking freon. According to city administrator Peter Herlofsky, a few of the pipes beneath the floor had rusted through, causing the leak. Arena employees were able to replace the pipes, but the fix, Herlofsky said, is definitely temporary.

“That floor has been there for 30 years,” he said. “I’m not sure anything we do there will be a long-term fix, short of a total replacement.”

When Herlofsky first came to Farmington a few years back and learned about the city’s facilities, the ice arena was given a life of four to five years in its current condition, he said. Herlofsky is now in his fourth year, and he has some real concerns with the building’s life expectancy.

The good news, he said, is that the arena should be in decent shape for the 2009-2010 hockey season.

“About a week ago, I was wondering if we’d have an arena for our hockey season,” he said.

It is a relief, but one that may also be short-lived. At Monday’s city council meeting, Herlofsky cautioned that funding for the ice arena will have to be considered as council members work their way through this year’s city budget.

What he would like, he said, is to have some kind of a plan in place by next March that addresses all of the things that need to be fixed in the building.

“We will have to be looking very, very seriously at a long term solution,” he told council members. “Anything we do to fix something is very short term.”

Tags: ice arena, sports, hockey, repairs