After what seemed like a very long wait for an engineer’s report, the Town of Slave Lake last week announced its verdict on the roof repairs to Arena #1 at the Arctic Ice Centre. The opening of the rink will be put back two weeks, to Oct. 13. Work on fixing the water-damaged roof commenced on Sept. 24 and is expected to take about two weeks –although Town Recreation Manager Karl Hill warned last week that is only an estimate.
The delay forces changes to practice schedules for every group using the single ice surface over the next couple of weeks.
“It means a lot more weekend times for practices,” says Hill.
Weeknight practices will be an hour later, says Minor Hockey spokesman Kyle Paulson, and teams can expect some weekend practices. Figure skaters will be working out on weekends too and have also booked a pre-school 6:00 - 8:00 a.m. spot.
Providing decent Rec Hockey game times would have been a problem, so when the Town asked that organization if it would put off starting their season until Oct. 13 they agreed.
“We had no problem with that,” says Rec Hockey President Joe Schultz.
Minor Hockey has likewise decided to wait until Oct. 13 to start the Novice and Shaver programs, originally due to begin practices this week.
Game times should remain the same, although obviously all will be played in the back ice for the time being. That includes the Wolves’ first two home games of the season this weekend against Sexsmith.
“We’re not calling (Saturday’s game) our home opener,” says Wolves’ President Larry Leganchuk. “That’ll be the Oct. 25 game against Fort St. John.”
Another change is that the Sunday evening family skating session won’t start until Oct. 19. When it does get going, it will be an expanded hour-and-a-half, and will be the only public skating time of the week this year. The roof repairs to the arena will be done from the inside, starting with removing the grey reflective sheeting that hangs on the underside of the roof.

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