Years after Hockeyville win, Lumby arena reno to start this spring

Since winning the Hockeyville title and $100,000 for arena upgrades more than three years ago, Lumby has been talking about overhauling Pat Duke Memorial Arena.

More than three years later, residents are still waiting for those improvements.

But that could soon change.

This week, the Regional District of North Okanagan announced it is still on track for spring construction after overcoming the latest project hiccup: the discovery that would need to be done to stabilize the wooden arches that support the structure.

Lumby Mayor Kevin Acton says the arches are not currently unsafe but that upgrades to them are needed if the village wants the arena to last “into the future.”

This week’s announcement that construction is still expected to start this spring came after a regional district committee agreed to chip in $500,000 from reserve funds to fix the wooden arches at the same time as the arena upgrades are underway.

2:34 Lumby goes Hockeyville crazy

Acton said if construction gets underway quickly in the spring officials are hoping to have the arena ready for use again for the next hockey season.

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However, after waiting for years for the promised renovations, some in Lumby are skeptical that construction will actually begin next spring.

But the mayor is defending the process, arguing the village will end up with a better result by taking a slow methodical approach to planning the project.

“To the people, including myself, who are challenged with waiting three and a half years… just know that we are going to get the best possible bang for our buck out of this by doing everything right,” said Acton.

While Acton noted it would have been nice to have the construction project underway the summer after the Hockeyville win, that would likely not have been possible due to a lack of funding for the initiative.

The vast majority of funding for the $3 million project is not coming from the Hockeyville prize money, instead the largest chunk of funding, nearly $2.6 million, is from the federal Gas Tax Fund. That major source of funding for the project came in early 2018.

Overall the renovation is expected to create more change rooms to allow for co-ed tournaments and to make the more than 50-year-old building more accessible.