Crews are seen laying down new portable ice mats at the Medicine Hat Curling Club that arrived earlier this week.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
This week the Medicine Hat Curling Club began long-awaited repairs on its facility and expects to open for a full season of curling later this year.
On Monday, portable ice mats were delivered and crews have started laying the mats down and connecting the individual pieces to make sure they fit properly.
“And from there, they’re going to connect the remainder of the back end of the mats to the headers,” explains Bryden Smith, president of the Medicine Hat Curling Club. “And then we’re going to build the catwalk back to where it was.”
The club expects the new ice plant should be arriving sometime in the late summer. Smith says these repairs have been a long time coming after the club was forced to close its doors following a brine leak discovered in the fall of 2022.
“Going through the process of are we starting and building a whole new rink, to drilling out concrete to finding this option with portable mats and the portable ice plants,” says Smith.
In July 2023 the city purchased the club building for $870,000 to assist with the purchase of the new ice mats and plant.
The club was awarded a Community Facility Enchantment Project grant worth more than $870,000 in December.
In total the club has raised more than $1.7 million to repair the facility. Once open the facility will feature eight sheets of ice.
“We should be ready to go for an October curling season.” says Smith. “Whether it’s the first week of October or the third week of October, we will have a curling season.”
More details on the facilities road map will be released Friday.
