WESTLOCK – With Jubilee Arena finally down, Town of Westlock officials expect its remnants to be removed within the next two weeks, while a final cost for the demolition is expected by the end of the month.
Town operations director Robin Benoit told councillors at their Jan. 9 meeting that the demolition contractors, who didn’t inform the town, discontinued work in December due to sub -30 C temperatures that month — crews started the job Dec. 8 by tearing down one wall on the southwest corner of the 59-year-old arena, then did nothing else until Jan. 5. The job had initially been scheduled for the early fall as the municipality first identified the week of Sept. 12, then the weeks of Sept. 19 and Oct. 31, for the final phase of the projected $280,000 demolition as the interior had previously been stripped — the delay in early November came after crews found more asbestos that didn’t get picked up in the original report on the building.
Following the restarting of work, crews made short work of the facility, which has been closed to the public since 2012, and it was all but erased by Monday, Jan. 9.
“But it’s down. Most of the waste had been transported out and then tomorrow (Jan. 10) and on they’ll start looking at taking the concrete to Lafarge. The condition of the brine lines that are in the concrete slab will dictate if it goes to Lafarge or to the landfill,” said Benoit, who was told it will take two weeks “start to finish” to complete the job.
Once the site is clear, Benoit said they’ll fill the hole with crushed concrete and asphalt and block it with barricades as it will need to sit before it can be paved — CAO Simone Wiley has stated previously there will be additional costs to level and landscape the site this year.
“Those are details we’ll leave to your expertise,” said mayor Ralph Leriger following a question to Benoit on how the site will be cordoned off.
As for the final cost of the demolition, Benoit told councillors he expects a total by the end of the January — in mid-November he noted that with the additional asbestos abatement it could be as high as an additional $50,000 on top of the projected $280,000, while the project had been initially budgeted at $1 million and funded via unrestricted reserves in the municipality’s 2022 capital budget.
Wiley said in the fall that while they’re disappointed the demo had been continually delayed, along with the revelation of more asbestos on site, they’re content that the final bill will be “substantially lower” than the original estimate.
Initially called the Westlock and District Jubilee Family Recreation Centre, Jubilee Arena officially opened July 13, 1963, and cost $75,744 to build. Meanwhile, the first hockey game at the facility was played Dec. 29, 1963, on natural ice as an ice plant wasn’t added until years later.
The arena was expected to come down following the opening of the Rotary Spirit Centre (RSC) in 2012, but those plans were shelved following the discovery of asbestos at the site — a report from that year stated that 16 of 26 building-material samples tested positive for the substance.
In late 2018, the council of the day talked about bulldozing the building and briefly considered renovating it for use as a warm-storage facility. But when faced with a $1 million price tag for that work, or $900,000 just to bulldoze it, council put the issue on the backburner.
