Penticton city councillor Frank Regehr wants another review before any decision is made on the fate of McLaren and Memorial Arenas.
The city’s recent asset and amenity management project recommended a twin-rink arena be built and the older McLaren and Memorial be demolished, in line with the recommendations made by the Penticton Arena Task Force in 2017.
The 2017 recommendation, had initially been accepted and the council at the time had supported looking into the financial and funding analysis for a new twin-rink arena before that plan went dormant.
Regehr wants the recommendations to be updated, on the basis of misinformation he claims was used as the foundation to the 2017 presentation.
In a notice of motion that was accepted by council on Feb. 1, and will return for discussion on Feb. 15, Regehr listed 11 points that he felt need a better review, given his time as a member of the Arena Task Force.
READ MORE: Penticton’s Memorial Arena deemed too old to keep, says consultant
In particular, he has taken issue with how the city’s arenas were portrayed as being incredibly busy based on information the task force provided at the time when more recent data now shows that the usage of the arena’s ice rinks only reached half of the available prime rental times.
The notice of motion ends by calling for more that needs to be done, including community consultation, before moving forward with building a new arena.
To report a typo, email: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com.
<>@PentictonNews
newstips@pentictonwesternnews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.