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Flooding ends curling season early

The Barrhead Curling Club’s (BCC) season has come to an abrupt end as the ice surfaces suffered extensive flood damage over the weekend. Stephanie Brost, BCC manager, said they discovered the flooding on March 19.

The Barrhead Curling Club’s (BCC) season has come to an abrupt end as the ice surfaces suffered extensive flood damage over the weekend.

Stephanie Brost, BCC manager, said they discovered the flooding on March 19.

“Runoff water coming from behind the curling rink entered the building and was high enough that it went onto the ice surface,” she said, noting that the water came with a lot of sand and gravel.

Unfortunately, due to the amount of sediment, the ice isn’t salvageable.

“In order to repair it the ice would have to be taken right out, which really isn’t feasible,” Brost said.

As a result the club had no choice but to end its season, eliminating a number of bonspiels (seniors league, stick and mixed) and the club’s league playoffs.

“It’s very disappointing because we had a full slate for all our upcoming bonspiels,” she said. “It’s just unfortunate that Mother Nature has dealt us this blow.”

Grant Balen, BCC president, added the club was aware that flooding from the backside of the building could be a potential issue.

“Typically when there was a big rain or something like that, water would leak into the rink, but usually it was a time when the season was already completed and it wasn’t really a factor. This year for whatever reason the extra variables caused it to flood terribly,” he said, adding the town in past years also has done some excavation work to alleviate the problem. “I don’t want to speculate what the problem is, but obviously some more work needs to be done.”

Balen added after talking with town officials, he is confident they will address the issue.

“The town has been great to work with,” he said.

Early in the season, shortly after the construction of the aquatic centre began, the curling club noticed water was leaking onto the ice from the building’s ceiling.

After an investigation, it was found that moisture was leaking onto the ice surface, but the town came up with a temporary solution.

As a stop gap measure, town staff drapped poly plastic along the wall across the ceiling.

“It appears to be more of a ventilation problem because when the town and one of our members pulled the fascia on the north end of the building to investigate — just opening the area seemed to increase the circulation and it seems to have solved a great deal of the problem.”

The town enlisted an engineering firm to find and fix the problem in an effort to come up with a permanent solution. At the last town council meeting March 14, Barrhead chief administrative officer, Martin Taylor, said the firm is still in the process of determining the issue.

As for the financial impact of the issue, Balen said they haven’t been able to crunch the numbers.

“It’s hard to know. We are going to lose some revenue from the bonspiels plus our windup for all our leagues,” he said, adding the club will also have to replace rink dividers and mats. “We just hope, as an executive, that the issues we had this year at the rink will not dissuade our members from returning next season.”

Parks and recreation director, Shallon Touet, was made aware the day after the flooding and said he would be in contact with Brant Ross, director of public works, to find a solution.

“It’s definitely a problem, not only at the curling rink, but at the arena. Anything that was built lower than the land around it,” he said, adding the new aquatic centre will not have an issue because its foundation is higher than the other two.


Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
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