After a year of hard work, the extensive renovations at the Halifax Curling Club are nearly complete.
“You get excited, you wanna get out there and start throwing rocks,” said Doug MacLean, project manager of the rebuild.
“Now, of course, the real push is on now because we’re so close. We got to sit back, take a breath, make sure we don’t miss anything.”
The club has been closed since last February, when a buildup of heavy snow on the roof of the facility caused it to collapse, leaving the building a mess and completely destroying the ice shed.
“It was very devastating,” said rebuild committee member Jane Everist. “The whole ice shed collapsed. We had nothing left. We were right down to just rubble.”
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Luckily, the cost for repairs are being covered completely by insurance. The rebuild comes with a number of new features like LED lighting, a new wooden ceiling, a new heating unit and a roof that can properly hold heavy loads of snow.
“There’s new bylaws and new code upgrades for the snow loads so now we are up to code,” Everist said. “It won’t happen again.”
Despite the renovations, not everything in the facility is new. The Halifax Curling Club is actually the oldest active curling club in the country, and they made sure to keep a piece of their history alive in the building.
“We kept one of the original beams and we worked around it, so we still have that piece of nostalgia there.”
The Halifax Curling Club will be opening their doors to show off the new facility to members next Friday. An open house for the community is scheduled for next Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m.
Everist says the Halifax Curling Club is grateful to the other clubs in the municipality who helped their members find ice time while repairs were ongoing.
Regular games are scheduled to start back up at the club on Feb. 1, and there will be some new programs this year, including a learn to curl and a men’s league.
More information on events at the Halifax Curling Club can be found on their website.
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