The City of New Westminster is exploring its options after the city’s second busiest recreation facility was destroyed by snow.
On the evening of Dec. 19, the roof of the Arenex collapsed under the weight of snow, destroying the 68-year-old building. The Arenex was the city’s second busiest recreation facility, after Canada Games Pool.
“I know we have reached out to the school district, Douglas College and the Justice Institute to see if there are any opportunities in any of their gymnasium facilities,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “We have also done some preliminary work to explore the opportunities of maybe putting up a temporary bubble facility in Queen’s Park. We are still waiting to get back information on all of those things, but we have already started the preliminary work to look into that.”
In addition to being home to city-run programs including gymnastics and trampoline, ball hockey, volleyball, basketball, badminton and toddler drop-in programs, the 1938 building was also home to the Shasta Trampoline Club, the Sapperton Fish and Game Club, the Queensborough Boxing Club and the Queen’s Park Running Club.
An investigation is underway about the collapse of the Arenex and a report will be going to council at its Jan. 9 meeting.
“I know we have had a structural engineer assess the situation. We don’t have a full report back yet on that,” Cote said. “We have also been conducting structural assessments on other city facilities. Although we are not concerned, we want to make sure that all of our civic facilities are safe, particularly as the snow continues to be in our community. So far we have not had anything report back with any concerns with any of our other facilities but we wanted to make sure we review that.”
Terry Atherton, the city’s manager of civic buildings and properties, said the Arenex was last inspected during a comprehensive building condition assessment in 2007 and no concerns were identified at that time. The assessment provided a renewal plan for a 35-year period.
“My understanding of the 2007 report is that nothing was highlighted in terms of potential problems with the roof,” Cote said of the assessment’s findings. “A maintenance schedule for the facility had been laid out for the next 35 years, which the city had been following and did include the replacement of the roof in 2011. But there’s nothing in the report that was done at that time that would have provided us with any indications that this was potentially something that could happen.”
Shortly after the roof collapsed, Fire Chief Tim Armstrong questioned whether the installation of insulation in the roof in 2011 may have thwarted the ability for heat from inside the building to escape and help prevent snow from accumulating on the wood roof.
“That will definitely be part of the investigation,” Cote said. “I know that was a theory the fire chief was speculating on right after the incident. At this point, we want to await until the full structural engineering report is in before we make any conclusions about exactly what happened.”
