West Kildonan Memorial Community Centre’s arena is temporarily closed due to a damaged exterior wall that officials believe was hit by a privately operated snow plow.
Board president Bryan Huen said the damage at the city-owned arena, which has been operated by the community centre’s volunteers for decades, was discovered Saturday morning.
“I guess some machinery accidentally hit the wall while clearing snow,” Huen said. “That’s the only way it could have happened.”
BORIS MINKEVICH / FREE PRESS FILES
West Kildonan Arena is temporarily closed thanks to a damaged exterior wall after being hit by a snow plow.
Some cinder blocks came off the lower part of the wall, he said.
The centre announced Tuesday that all hockey practices and games at the arena, located at Perth Avenue and Powers Street, are cancelled until further notice.
“Obviously, I’m not happy, and everybody else that’s involved in our arena,” Huen said. “We’ll just have to do what we can.”
He hopes it won’t take long to carry out the repairs necessary to reopen the building. He said the city told him a contractor is scheduled to conduct an assessment Wednesday.
The arena was built in 1967.
Ross Eadie, the city councillor for the area, said a damage estimate is not yet available, but he’s concerned it could be a big bill.
“It took out enough of the corner that it’s not structurally sound. A structural engineer said it’s too unstable to keep the arena open,” the councillor for Mynarski said. “It had to be heavy equipment. The damage was that bad.”
City spokeswoman Pam McKenzie said a structural engineer carried out an assessment this week.
“It has been determined that operations at the arena site should be discontinued due to concerns with the integrity of the wall where the damage occurred and the emergency exit,” McKenzie wrote in an email. “The arena site will remain closed until further notice. The daycare site is not affected and remains open.”
She said the cause of the damage is “under review.”
The damage occurred in the same spot where a snow plow collided with the southwest corner of the building in 2023, Eadie said.
“There was some damage, and that was determined to be a plow,” Eadie said of the previous incident, which did not result in a closure of the arena.
He said an insurance claim filed following that collision has not been resolved.
City hall’s risk management branch is dealing with insurance-related matters following the latest collision, Eadie said.
Huen declined to identify the company that was hired to remove snow prior to the discovery of the damage. He said he has been in discussions with the company.
The centre hires a snow-removal company as needed, rather than on a contractual basis, Huen said.
chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
Chris Kitching
Reporter
Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.
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