The Prince George Golf and Curling Club has enough funds in its piggy bank to pay for the cost of replacing its ice plant.
In early September, workers tried to fire up the compressor which chills the pipes in the curling rink. The ice plant was inspected, was found to not be repairable, and will have to be replaced.
PGGCC president Dan Martin said Monday he put in the order for a new chiller last week and it's expected to be delivered in six to eight weeks. The chiller has a price tag of $163,000.
Once it arrives from Ontario, it will take two to three weeks to install the plant and prep the eight curling sheets, postponing the start of the season to at least mid-November.
With the 2015 Canada Winter Games on the horizon, Martin said the club had already upgraded a portion of the ice plant at a cost of $70,000. The work included re-doing part of the ice compressors. By the time everything is done, the final tab will be $233,000.
"That money is still sitting in our reserves with what we negotiated with the city to relocate the tennis courts," said Martin. "None of it has been touched. The funds [we received] had to be spent on certain projects and that included the ice plant."
The new refrigeration unit is built to last about 10 years and was last replaced in 2001.
"We thought we were going to be fine [going into 2015] but everybody pushes things to the end and I think we've gone beyond that," said Martin, adding the club had been doing maintenance. "Everything gets to a point where you don't have a choice. We knew we were going to have to do something and we thought we could get away with it."
The club hosted the Scotties women's provincial curling championship in January, where Patti Knezevic and her Prince George rink finished fourth and Tracey Jones and her rink missed the playoffs in a tiebreaker.
"Thank God we weren't hosting the Scotties this year, it would've put a damper on Tracey and Patti. It would've been awful," said Martin.
He said the delay is affecting a bunch of juniors who are not able to get on the ice and are looking for practice facilities elsewhere.
Because of the delay, the club is looking at a condensed schedule for all the leagues, which include seniors, mixed, men's, senior mixed, ladies, doubles, juniors, beginners, open recreational and Little Rock.
"Hopefully it all goes well," said Martin of the installation. "We're keeping our fingers crossed."
