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Huron Expositor, 2007-09-19, Page 2Page 2 The Huron Expositor • September 19, 2007 News Arena board hoping for six change rooms From Page 1 change rooms," he said, later noting that making the facility more accessible is also a big aim. He said they would like to open up the viewing area "for full viewing for people who do not want to sit in the cold." As for concessions, he said there's a lot of space that's no longer being used that can be bette* used for other purposes. He said the renovation would also address the way youth use the facilities. "Twenty-five years ago, when the arena was built, it was mostly young fellas using the arena and now it's both genders," he said, noting that i difficult to cycle teams through during week - Energy eff ,,bring home t end tournaments with the two -room system cur- rently in place. "It's a lot easier with a three-room system," he said. "So we'd like to see if we could rearrange things so that there would be,. maybe, six change rooms instead of four and at the same time, mov- ing things around so we can best utilize all that ,%space." He explained that as far as process goes, the public meeting was held so the arena board could talk to the different groups that use the arena, tell them what the board's ideas are and get their input. "Fundraising's the big thing," he said. "If it gets to the stage where we have the blessing of council and have the blessing of the user groups and everybody's sup- port, there is going to be a big fundraising component like there was when the arena was built 25 years ago, though probably not as aggressive as that -44111■IL Look for your coupon book in the mail. Packed with over $35 of savings, your Every Kilowatt Counts coupon book instantly saves you money on energy-efficient products—from lighting to devices that put you in control of your electricity use. Redeem at your nearest retailer by November 30th, and start saving while helping the environment too. CIPM ow.rr. n.-.. Awlstr►- ^" OPA, Every Kilowatt Counts, and Ontario Power Authority are each official marks of the Ontario Power Authority Coin image 02007 Royal Canadian Mint - AH Rights Reserved was." Someone asked if grants are available. "There're always grants available," said Vander Molen, giving the Trillium grant as an example. "We'll be looking at all the different fund- ing ideas," he said, not- ing that the main amount would have to come from those inter- ested in supporting it. When Vander Molen opened the floor for input, John Taylor suggested "six dressing rooms down the west side, behind the play- ers' bench." Vander Molen said "that's definitely an option," noting that his concern is that they don't want to limit any further improvements that might be made down the road. One person brought up the prob- lems that female play- ers have, citing the Knights of Columbus tournament as being one of the worst exam- ples with girls practi- cally changing "on top of each other," saying that there's "not nearly enough room." "How often do you have a need, when you have so much girls' hockey?" asked Bob Fisher. "Girls and boys overlap games back to back," said John Taylor. "You can have midget boys and then bantam girls back to back, quite possibly. Or ringette comes in to play and then broomball comes in at night after the ringette. There .are all kinds of different scenarios," said Taylor. "The dressing rooms share one shower," pointed out another person. "There's a locked door between them," said Fisher. "One dressing room isn't totally emptied out before the next user arrives," explained Vander Molen. "There's not supposed to be," said Fisher. "I know, but it's just one of those things that just doesn't work," said Vander Molen. "I've seen it in the last year where Sunday afternoon hock- ey's still in the change room and the second user is trying to get in but the change room is still full." "That needs to be policed better," said one of the people around the table, noting that other facilities manage to do it. "There's an argument there, absolutely," said Vander Molen, though he noted that most facili- ties have at least six change rooms. Dan and Wendy Primeau, of the ringette execu- tive, brought up storage, saying that ringette needs more. The same concern was echoed by minor hockey users. Vander Molen said that wasn't something he'd heard expressed before and noted it down. "Timeframe?" said someone. "I'm bad with timeframes," said Vander Molen. "I'd love to see it take place after next year's ice season." Vander Molen asked which arenas have the best lobbies (Milverton and Blyth were named), concessions (Hensall, Lucknow, Goderich and Wingham were named), change rooms (Blyth, Alvinston and Mitchell were named) and the most accessible facilities (Monkton, Palmerston and Mitchell were named). Marie Hicknell-Feeney said that while she is sure people are all for improving the facilities, she wondered if they'll be as gung ho for the funding end of it. In the same vein, another person there expressed a concern about whether or not improvements will translate to an increase in ice rates, even if they do fundraising and if the user groups help out. Vander Molen said the arena works hard to keep the ice rates in line with other facilities around Seaforth. "I don't think you have to worry about ice rates having to fund this project," he said. Fisher said that overhead would go up because they'd have to hire an additional person to clean the extra changerooms. Vander Molen disagreed, saying that while there would be another two changerooms, the number of overall users wouldn't be higher. Arena manager Dale Lamont said he thought they could probably cover any increased work- load with a part-time student employee or a cou- ple students doing 'olunteer hours. Vander Molen said the next step is to go to council with their ideas "and hopefully having an initial drawing or concept generated for us." Figuring out how much renovations would cost and where the money would come from would follow.