Another Flin Flon landmark is about to disappear after city council voted Tuesday to demolish the Willow Park Curling Club.
The familiar Spruce Ave. building, abandoned for more than a year, is expected to be torn down in the near future.
Council will spend $83,516 to demolish the building, a process that Coun. Bill Hanson said will involve asbestos removal.
Council awarded the contract to a local company, Whitford Paving.
Willow Park was open for 62 years until members voted to shut down the city-owned rink in October 2012.
It was a move executive member Doug Dutcawich called saddening.
“We’ve been running since 1950 and you look on the walls there, there’s a lot of history there from the very beginning until today,” he told The Reminder at the time.
Dutcawich said the club was unable to move forward financially as the aging rink required major repairs.
“We had a strong membership. We just weren’t prepared for the cost right now,” he said.
With 200 initial members, the building opened in 1950 in the then-growing subdivision of Willowvale.
Members assisted with the construction of the rink, main waiting room, and later with renovations to accommodate the lounge and additional locker rooms, according to the book Flin Flon.
Willow Park curlers voted in 2004 to amalgamate with the Uptown Curling Club, but the decision was overturned by a second vote later that year.
The Willow Park closure left Flin Flon with just one curling rink, the Uptown Curling Club, for the first time since its early days.
Plant gone
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, council voted to demolish the city’s No. 2 Heating Plant near the Aqua Centre.
The building was abandoned earlier this year when its functions were overtaken by the new water treatment plant.
The city will spend $33,862 on that demolition, which will also be handled by Whitford Paving.
Council also voted to buy a Ford F-150 truck for $26,354 plus taxes. It will be used by the manager of the airport to conduct airport business.
In addition, council heard from concerned resident Blair Sapergia, who last week got notice that he is to turn on the bleeder valve at his home to keep water circulating this winter.
Sapergia wondered why the city’s system is not working properly, saying his bleeder valve will use up 1,500 gallons of water a day.
Coun. Hanson said Sapergia lives at the end of a water grid loop, so he and his neighbours do not receive the same water flow as other residents.
But Sapergia was not satisfied with that answer: “We should be able to make that system work.”
The Willow Park Curling Club has a dating with a wrecking crew.
FILE PHOTO
