Above photo: Back when the world was young and green and repairs to the boilers was only expected to take a few days. Now, the Community Centre isn’t expected to open until Feb. 24.
It’s been nearly two weeks since the heating system at the Community Centre gave out, but, if things go to plan, the Community Centre will re-open February 24.
Of course, if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be the first time that schedule slipped. When the boiler first gave out, staff was hoping to have the Community Centre back open by that weekend but it quickly became apparent that the entire boiler would have to be replaced, pushing the hoped-for re-open date to February 14. But that date, too, proved too optimistic, resulting in current plan of re-opening on February 24.
The cold weather that has been hanging about the area for the last few weeks was pushing the boilers to 100 percent, says Maintenance Foreman Ken MacEachern, who came before council on February 5, alongside Director of Community Services and Facilities Denis Bento to ask council for funds to replace the broken boiler.
“Unfortunately, our previous boiler from 2008—which is used as a backup—suffered an internal failure and this most recent failure is a leak in the heat exchanger which is irreparable.”
In order to make sure there is no damage to any of the building’s infrastructure, staff has set up electric heaters and Herman Nelson heaters, which they’ve rented from Southpaw, as well as running water through the lines to prevent freezing.
This means that the centre is staying warm, but cannot have people walking in and out, as the constant traffic would let too much of the heat out. “We can have minimal staff in there, but we cannot have the facility open to the public,” says CAO Lisa Scott.
After it was discovered the boilers would have to be replaced, Community Centre staff were hoping to have at least one boiler up and running by Valentine’s Day. With one boiler up and running, the plan was to open the building, but leave the pool closed until both boilers were up and running.
That, however, did not come to pass.
The closure has affected a number of programs and businesses. The Tumbler Ridge Library, for instance, has been closed for much of the time, though is allowing patrons to check out books via the website, then come and pick them up between two and four Monday to Friday. A secondary return bin is available at Rockin’ Rob’s Dollar store, but, says Head Librarian Paula Coutts, there are no overdue fines, so patrons can just hold on to their books until the building re-opens.
Also closed, the Teen Centre. Coordinator Dawn Wagner has been bouncing between Willow Hall and the Tumbler Ridge Fellowship Baptist Church to provide programming for the kids.
The Daycare, meanwhile, has been offering programs at the Visitor Information Centre as well as Tumbler Ridge Elementary.
Some of the Community Centre programs—like Active Age and Choose Fitness—are being held at Willow Hall.
And Family Day, typically held in the Community Centre, was held this year at the High School.
A hockey tournament and a curling bonspiel had to be cancelled, along with hockey practice and figure skating practice.
Scott says staff contacted all the affected groups to let them know what was happening, posted notifications on the district website and social media, and printed off notices to place around town, as well as a notice on the marquee outside the community centre.
On February 5, an emergency meeting was held to approve spending up to $300,000 to cover the cost of new boilers, as well as the installation. “We’re also hoping that it will be enough to cover the costs of the rentals for the additional heaters that we’ve had to use, and any other incidental costs related to this incident,” says Scott.
She says they have talked to their insurance provider, though she doesn’t know if is something that qualifies as an insurance claim. “We have notified the organizations to give them a heads up, and we’ll be keeping track of expenses accordingly in case it does end up being an insurance claim.”
She says they aren’t sure if the failure would be covered by warranty. “Those are details that we do not have yet at this time.”
Six years ago, a similar issue meant the Community Centre had no boilers. “At the time, we actually were able to keep the facility open, though we didn’t have hot water,” says MacEachern. “I would not recommend trying to keep it open in this weather. Last time the weather wasn’t quite as bitterly cold.”
MacEachern says the Community Centre has two boilers. Depending on the weather, they can modulate from about five percent right up to 100 percent. “In extreme cold weather like this, we definitely need to have two of them. The one running at 100 percent was just barely enough to keep everything going.”
The two boilers set-up replaced a three boiler system in 2023, though one of the old boilers was kept on as a back-up, but that one also failed.
Mayor Krakowka asks if a third boiler is needed as backup in the future. “The third boiler was just kept as an emergency backup if we needed it. Say, if we had do repairs on one we could cycle that one on to assist the other. We shouldn’t require a third one. It’s unfortunate that we’ve had these failures, but when it’s running properly, the two boilers have more than enough capacity.”
Mayor Krakowka says the problem is these things never happen when it is summer. “It happens when we’re minus 34 or 35. My concern is there may possibly be delays on getting a replacement in the future. It sounds like the supplier has these in stock but is that always a thing? I just look at where we live. We normally see three to four weeks a year at minus 35. My concern is we could be in a lot worse scenario if the boilers were not easily accessible.”
MacEachern says three would be overkill, but not in a situation where the town gets three or four weeks of -40 weather. “It definitely would be beneficial to have the extra capacity, but there would also be additional cost. Not just because of the additional boiler, but piping reconfiguration, the venting of the exhaust and the air intake would all hase to be slightly modified. It’s definitely doable. We did it for the other two, it would just be some more additional costs. It’s definitely something to look into going forward.”
For now, though, says MacEachern, getting the two main boilers replaced is the primary importance.
With the cold weather warnings in effect, the Community Centre was the district’s warming shelter. While those warnings have now been rescinded, Town Hall became the town’s fill-in warming centre over that time period.
Daytime temperatures are expected to get above zero by the weekend.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
