The executive of the Boissevain Curling Club plans to replace the aging ice plant this summer.

A $96,000 grant through the province’s Building Sustainable Communities program was the financial boost the executive needed to move forward with the project.

President Brent Hazlewood says the last quote they had brings the total cost in at $192,000.

“The building was built in the mid 60’s and the ice plant went in then. We did put in new compressors in the early 1980’s but the rest of the plant is all original. It uses a type of Freon they don’t make anymore because it’s quite hard on the ozone layer and that’s why they stopped making it. Ours seems to leak a little bit so that’s the big thing we keep losing Freon and we can’t get more to replace it.”

Brent Hazlewood says it’s hard to say if the ice plant would get the club through another winter of curling because it’s hard to say how much Freon would leak out.

The club has been busy with fund raising and Hazlewood says the executive felt they were in a position to go ahead with the project in 2022. “We did our merchants draw and it was successful thanks to the 10 merchants who each donated $100 which meant we had virtually no expenses. We do that most years and we’ve been putting money away into a reserve for plant repairs or replacement and we have about $40,000 saved up there.”

The Boissevain Curling Club plans to meet with the ice plant company and go from there. ‘We’ve been told if we make the purchase by July 1st they’d have the new ice plant running by mid October.”

“We aren’t going with an ammonia plant so we can use our existing building for the new ice plant which is another savings for the club.”

The club is still about $50,000 short and Brent Hazlewood says they’ll end up borrowing some money and will continue to apply for grants and doing more fund raising.