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Council begins discussion on dressing room solution

Temporary and permanent solutions reviewed, no motion passed

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Possible options for a new arena dressing room were discussed during the committee of the whole meeting on April 10, in order for councillors to get a feel for the best possible solution to the lack of dressing room space at the Didsbury Memorial Complex.

Five possible solutions were presented to council, each with its own cost, estimated time of development, and pros and cons.

One such option, which was presented with more favourable pros than cons, was to initiate a capital project to add four dressing rooms and a corridor on the south side of the arena, mirroring the original dressing rooms.

The project, which had a projected cost of $800,000 over a two- to three-year period, would be a permanent solution that adds good-quality dressing rooms, frees up space formerly used as dressing rooms in the arena for other needs, and has no noise conflict with the Multi-Purpose Room.

However, with a new installation would come potential code upgrades, which could add an additional cost onto the project that was not projected.

Other options were to convert the Hog Line Room in the curling arena, repurpose the practice rink, add dressing room trailers on the west side of the arena, or build an additional full-size rink with dressing rooms and services.

The latter option would cost $7 million, and while the arena would gain $160,000 in revenue, councillors agreed that the revenue gain would not make up for the total purchase.

The other options would potentially yield dressing rooms of poor quality, far from the lobby, and would not necessarily be permanent solutions.

It would also mean a loss of space, especially in repurposing the practice rink, which would see a $30,000 loss in revenue.

Council did not pass a motion as the topic was merely up for discussion. However, it was noted that fundraising could always be done to pay for an option if one was chosen in the future.