Above: Town of Morinville employee Rolland (Rolly) Hebert driving the Zamboni around for a final symbolic ice flooding last March.
by Morinville News Staff
Five months after the community said farewell to the Ray McDonald Sports Center, the Town may be saying hello to a new owner.
Council held a special meeting on Tuesday, August 6 to address one Closed Session agenda item, the “Potential Sale of Ray McDonald Sports Center.”
Prior to the meeting, Town Administration had received from a third party a letter of intent about the facility.
Following Tuesday’s closed session, Council directed Administration to negotiate a sale agreement for the Ray McDonald Sports Center Arena. The Town says the current discussions are focused solely on the arena portion of the facility.
“As we are committed to looking into all options that are presented to the Town of Morinville, we have directed Administration to further investigate the sale of the Ray McDonald Sport Center Arena,” said Mayor Barry Turner in a media release Tuesday. “We have also asked for all the due diligence to be completed. This will all be reviewed, along with the draft Sale Agreement, before any decisions will be made.”
The Town says the sale of the facility would result in a savings of up to $2 million in demolition costs presently projected for the 2020 capital Budget, as well as removing liability from the Town while still retaining a facility/service asset to the Community. Although the Town has not disclosed what the former arena may be used for, the Town is anticipating that “an additional facility in the community will encourage economic growth and spinoff.”
Once Administration completes the Draft sale agreement, it will be brought to Council for consideration. No timeline for the negotiations has been established.
The Town, citing FOIP legislation, is not revealing who the potential buyer is.
Build a pool there
Happy to hear that Rolly will have a job at the new place. He worked for my dad about 40 years ago!
To who and why.
Use the money to build a pool! 🙌
Derek Romkey not worth the same $ as a pool.
Kurtis Mercer it’s a start…
I don’t trust this mayor or council. We were told that the old building wasn’t repairable. Now we have a 31.5 million dollar building this town can ill afford. Closed door council meetings seem to becoming a habit with this crew. It’s taxpayers money, and we should have a say.
I can’t wait for the next election