When it comes to the future of the West Ferris arena, members of the community are having a hard time agreeing on one of the three potential locations—with some even trying to suggest complete alternatives. But two things are common to nearly all parties: it needs to be a double ice pad and it needs to happen now.
The city held a public information session Thursday night at Discovery North Bay Museum, presenting all the information on the three possible locations: the Sam Jacks Complex (where the current arena is located), the Steve Omischl Sports Complex, and Thomson Park (behind Memorial Gardens).
For some members of the community, like Trappers AAA Hockey Association president Jim Hall, the option of having the new arena built over the pre-existing West Ferris arena and interesting and possible option.
“I didn’t expect the city to present the possibility of building behind the old West Ferris Arena and it has potential,” Hall said about his second choice. “But my first choice would be the Memorial Gardens. I’m not a big fan of moving to Omischl, it’s too far away, it’s not central. It’s as simple as that.”
When it comes to first choices, that’s something Hall and Coun. Daryl Vaillancourt, member of the special committee said it was his personal choice, but it was important to take in the ideas of the community. His only caution was not to bog down the process by starting to travel down the avenue of new locations, believing the current selection to be well thought out.
“A lot of this comes from the Multi-use Recreational Facility Feasibility Study (MURF) and it’s a good study, we don’t want to start that over again. It was an incredible document and we need to rely on that,” he said. “Tonight I’m seeing a lot of positive support for seeing this happen. We’ve already had our first committee meeting, after our next one on October 11, I’m hoping we move forward with some recommendations. We have to move forward on a decision. Doing nothing is not an option.”
And that’s something both he and Coun. Mark King, chair of community services and the special committee, can agree on. He said the options were good, but something had to happen sooner rather than later, a sentiment he’s heard from the community.
“I think the general mood towards the city is they want the city to get on with this process, certainly from my viewpoint when we started down this road,” he said. “My intention was to get public input before making any decisions.”
Despite wanting to move quickly, King said he didn’t want to rush the process and with a project this large, the right decisions needed to be taken in a timely manner.
“We want to make sure we do this right, give people the opportunity to look at what’s being suggested so we can get the proper feedback before moving forward,” King said. “This decision is a community decision. This arena will be used by the community and we need to make sure we do it in the right way so it lasts for years.”
And Hall agreed with this, wanting an arena complex in a good location that would last decades, helping foster what he perceived to be a growing tradition of North Bay being a hockey community.
“Minor hockey in this town is very important and North Bay has been a hockey town for a long, long time, and now that we’re embarking on a new situation, we need to make sure we do the right thing—that the city does the right thing,” he said.
Despite everything, members of the community, staff, and council agreed that it was a good night of healthy discussion and were confident it would help bring the future of the West Ferris arena to the next step.
The next special committee meeting is October 11.
