Crews tear down the Civic

Slowly, brick by brick the old Civic Arena is being torn down. 

Work began on tearing down the 80-year-old arena in September, and according to Nick Nilsen the communications manager with the City of Vernon, they hope to have the building demolished by Nov. 20.

 "We are about halfway through the demolition at this point. The work started with the removal of interior doors and electrical breakers and other equipment that may have a second use or could be recycled or just has some value that we could sell to another community."

The much-beloved arena has been a fixture in the community and the city is working on keeping its memory alive. 

"We have done some extensive photography in there to document how the arena looked," explains Nilsen.  "We will have some good information for the archives and that is really important to bring back memories down the road to many people."

The city also plans to repurpose some of the rafters into a display at KalTire Place as sort of an homage to the civic arena. 

As for what will go where the old civic is standing now, Nilsen says that hasn't been decided. 

"At this point, there is no use plan for the site. In the shorter term, it will be a green space or a bit of parking. That is is to be determined. That decision really lies with the new council.  I would expect that in the next few months we will have some direction on what is going to happen there."

In November 2017, the previous city council made the decision after receiving reports indicating that repurposing the civic would be technically challenging and costly – at an estimated $11-12 million.

After much debate among civic leaders and the community, it was decided to demolish the Civic Arena.

Photo: Contributed