Fredericton arena, indoor pool to see temporary closures
Two major Fredericton recreation centres are closing over the next few months.
The Grant Harvey Centre will be closed from April 2 to the middle of July, and come June, the Fredericton Indoor Pool will shut down for a month. Both will be closed for maintenance and repairs.
At the Grant Harvey Centre, the city will be doing maintenance on a wide variety of pumps and motors that move geothermal fluid throughout the building to provide heat.
The city will also be looking at technical modifications to provide smoother operations and help save on operating costs, said Scott Brown, manager of building services for the City of Fredericton.
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"We need some time in order to do that unfortunately," said Brown.
Although the Grant Harvey ice will be closed, other areas, including the walking track and community rooms, will remain open. Brown said the closure will not affect combat sporting events set to take place at the Grant Harvey in May and July.
The city typically removes ice from local arenas at the end of March, but this year, two other arenas will take up the slack when the Grant Harvey is under maintenance.
One sheet of ice will be available at Willie O`Ree Place and one sheet at the Lady Beaverbrook Arena.
"We still have the same ice availability we've had in previous years," he said. "It's just at different facilities this year."
When the building initially opened almost five years ago, Brown said, there were some problems because of mechanical failures.
"We're shutting down for preventive maintenance so we do not have mechanical failures like that in the future," he said.
The city hasn't put much time into repairs, because the building has been open 50 out of 52 weeks of the year.
Fixing pool drain, slide
The city usually does mechanical and maintenance work at the indoor pool around Christmas, within an eight-day period. This year, Brown is hoping to have maintenance completed within the month of June.
The pool, which is almost 27 years old, is having problems with its primary drain. The steps to the water slide also need replacing.
Brown said a thorough inspection will be done on the tile along the pool deck, and the pool basin will see painting and cleaning.The city also plans to improve the pool's ultraviolet sanitizing system for better water quality.
"Pools and hot tubs are typically a breeding ground for micro-organisms," he said. "This is just another step to give better water quality."
