Photo: Colin Dacre

The World Curling Tour at the Penticton Curling Club last November

The Penticton Curling Club was before city council Tuesday with an urgent plea for help to get the club’s ice plant compliant with new safety regulations in the wake of the Fernie ammonia leak tragedy.

Club president Cathy Jones came armed with a $218,000 quote from Glacier Heights Refrigeration to completely replace the club’s four-decade old ice plant.

She told council she’s tracked down a matching grant that could cover half the work, but the club only has the funds to cover about a quarter and needs support from the city to backstop the rest.

“With all the changes regarding ammonia, no one could have budgeted or planned for all the extra costs for all these curling rinks, or other plants with ammonia,” she said.

Should a Fernie-like ammonia plant failure occur in Penticton, a 3.4 kilometre radius around the club would need to be evacuated, Jones said.

“We were noticing a leakage of ammonia this past season," she explained. "Normally you install 300 pounds of ammonia at the start of a season, and we had to add an additional 200 pounds this past season."

Last year, the city loaned the club $40,000 for a bare-bones repair to the ice plant. Jones said they would be able to repay that loan in full today if it would make it easier for the city to back the club on the grant, which is due at the end of the month.

The club has been experiencing significant growth recently, with 150 people joining in the past year bringing the total membership to 450. The World Curling Tour stop that launched last year is returning and has already sold out.

Jones presented council with several options ranging from bare minimum repairs to get the plant compliant with ammonia safety regulations to a full replacement of the ice plant.

The club’s lease with the city runs out in 2020 and there has been some discussion that the city may want to take back control of the building. Right now building maintenance is the club’s responsibility and as a nonprofit they have better access to grants than the city would as a local government if they waited to fully replace the plant, Jones said.

Council deferred decision, and directed city staff to rush a report providing more insight on funding options.