By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
The proposed designs for the ice arena, presented to the Northfield City Council on 9/17/2024
The Northfield Hockey Association announced recently that they have met their $2 million goal for a donation to the construction of the new ice arena. As part of the funding agreement with cities and school districts, the hockey association had pledged $2 million to the project. However, with momentum the group is working to keep going with a goal of raising $6 million. The initial design for the arena cost about $28 million and the city designers were able to remove features to lower the cost to $21 million.
Chris Kennelly, the chair of the Hockey Associations Arena committee, noted that by raising extra funds those features can be added back into the project:
“I mean, these modern arenas are just so much with technology where it’s gone. I mean, think about this. One was built in 1977 and and what’s the difference now? So even things of mounting cameras on different portions of the rink so that you can just, you know digitally get to them and show different angles.” – Chair of the Hockey Association Arena Committee, Chris Kennelly on the KYMN Morning Show
Kennelly also stated that they were trying to get back both a dry-land training facility and concrete seating in the project.
The debate for a new ice arena has been ongoing for many years. Kennelly stated that after reviewing the costs to repair the current facility and building a new one, now was the time to decide:
“And one of the big things is the refrigerant system that’s in there that would need to be replaced, which is a major undertaking of a couple $1,000,000. So really the city did a great job of looking at all the options, including renovating that current arena and really one of the things we proved out because of this public private partnership that you mentioned, it was about the same cost to the taxpayer as renovating the current arena as doing a new one.” – Chair of the Hockey Association Arena Committee, Chris Kennelly on the KYMN Morning Show
Kennelly noted that with a new arena, the facility can last for up to 50 years.
The total cost of the project is expected to be $21 million, the hockey association’s initial pledge will lower the cost to taxpayers to $19 million, the hockey association has donated the land for the project. The City of Dundas and Northfield will fund the $19 million of the project and the Northfield Public Schools has agreed to help fund the project via a 20 year lease at $250,000 a year.
You can view the previous stories KYMN has done about the funding agreement and initial design proposed below:
Previous Story (9/24/2024): A First Look at the Design for the New Ice Arena
Previous Story (11/21/2024): Northfield Hockey Association Announces Fundraising Update
