Though it’s not yet a decade old, the Adidas Sportsplex is in dire need of repair.
Problems with the canvas roof of the sports bubble as well as its heating systems required nearly $10,000 of emergency repairs to keep it operating through the winter season, and even that had to come to a temporary halt when the snow became a concern.
“Last year we had to close the facility because of the snow load on the roof. It wasn’t safe to be occupied,” said director of operations Mitch Moroziuk.
The Adidas Sportsplex was built in 2008 by the Penticton Soccer Club with a $300,000 grant from the City of Penticton and another $250,000 from the Penticton Ironman Society. But as early as 2009, it was already plagued with problems in the canvas that stretches over a steel framework to make both walls and roof.
It’s also the first building to be brought before council as part of the second phase of the facilities master plan. Facilities manager Bregje Kozak recommended spending $350,000 to replace the heating system and repairing the roof and envelope deficiencies. That would extend the life of the building by about 10 years.
Kozak said the list of problems is a long one. The canvas roof structure is experiencing tears and holes, and sagging is evident in the roof fabric; while the undersurface heating system, which was improperly installed, failed completely last year.
It took city council two votes to approve spending the money on the building, despite funds being available from another repair project that was cancelled. The first vote ended in a tie, with opponents concerned that the repairs amounted to a Band-Aid decision.
“I can’t see $350,000 on what could be a leaky boat being the right fix,” said Coun. Campbell Watt, who felt council should wait until the full facilities master plan was complete before considering the repairs.
The sportsplex is well used and is typically fully booked during the peak indoor season from October to March, according to Kozak, with almost a 1,000 regular users.
As council seesawed back and forth on the issue of repairing the sportsplex, with Coun. Andre Martin suggesting at one point it might be better to replace it, Moroziuk delivered some sober warnings.
He cautioned the city was already looking at a $30-million bill for repairing and upgrading facilities over the next decade, which was what prompted the intensive studies being done in the second phase of the Facilities Master Plan.
“We can’t afford any more facilities. We need to have less facilities, we can’t afford the ones we have now,” said Moroziuk. “I don’t know where you are going to get the money from. You have a $30-million problem today, and you want to add to it.”
Memorial Arena is probably the next building, according to Moroziuk, who told council $350,000 isn’t going to make a whole lot of difference compared to the money that will need to be spent on that building
“In looking at the facilities master plan, we are going to start having to knock these buildings off one at a time. This one has a huge user base,” said Moroziuk.
City manager Eric Sorenson said this is the appropriate time to fix the building, before costs spiral higher.
“We have one opportunity to fix it for $350,000 or the future costs could be well in the excess of the $350,000 and given our financial state, we won’t be fixing it, we will be tearing it down,” he said.
Much of the current problems, Kozak said, stem from problems with the original construction, like improper insulation on the below ground heating pipes, resulting in a short life for the system.
“It is a little bit of difficult situation all around. There was also multiple contracts on the project … and multiple permits. It wasn’t a very clean way of constructing a building,” said Kozak. “It is not just the system engineering that didn’t follow best practice, it was also generally the way it was procured and constructed.”
Coun. Helena Konanz wanted to know what was being done to recover the city’s losses due to poor construction. She noted that the sportsplex is featured on the Pavilion Structures website as an example of their work.
Kozak said that Pavilion was the company that came in and made the repairs, after the original contractor, Cover-All, went bankrupt. Colin Fisher, the city’s chief financial officer, chimed in that they were trying to address the problems, but didn’t want to go into detail.
“We are currently in the process of working with Pavilion on certain issues and I am loath to talk further along these lines with respect to the bubble,” said Fisher.
With Coun. Tarik Sayeed absent, council’s first vote ended in a tie, with Couns. Andre Martin, Konanz and Watt opposed to authorizing the full repairs. Watt switched sides on a second vote, and the motion passed 4-2.