CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The lights are out at the Charlottetown Curling Club, and it is not known when the players will return to play their favourite winter sport.
The normal hustle and bustle of the start of the season was halted recently after the chiller in the club’s ice plant broke down during start up and couldn’t be repaired. The club’s board of directors let its roughly 200 members know late last week they would not open in 2020, with January being the earliest potential start date, if it can secure the required funding.
“We’re all disappointed by the news,” said president Tyler Harris, who began curling at the club in 1992. “There’s been curling ice in the City of Charlottetown for 135 years, and this is one of the first years since the '40s (during the Second World War) that there is not. We feel terrible about it.”
The ice plant is 31 years old, having been installed with the help of Canada Games funding before the club hosted the 1991 Canada Winter Games.
Replacing the chiller may cost between $50,000 and $80,000, but club officials are working hard to try to gather quotes and come up with an action plan.
“For us, to be faced with this kind of a capital expenditure is certainly going to be a challenge,” Harris said. “We’re going to be reaching out to the members, community and government to try and create a better product.”
This is not the first time the chiller has been an issue. The club spent about $30,000 a year ago on it.
“We hoped it was going to buy us two or three or four years to address the aging plant issue, but the same problem we had last year came back this year with a vengeance,” Harris said.
The chiller is only one component of the plant, and club officials are going to gather information about replacing the whole system. Today's plants are designed to be able to be moved, so if a new facility was ever built the plant could be transferred.
The news has some curlers reaching out to neighbouring clubs in Cornwall and Montague to see if there’s ice time available.
“We’re going to try to accommodate them to the best of our ability,” said Peter Murdoch, vice-president of the Cornwall Curling Club. “They are fellow curlers, and we’re a small community really and we have to help each other whenever we can.”
Upsetting news
Eddie MacKenzie has curled out of Charlottetown on and off for about 25 years. He was planning on curling there this year and is uncertain where his team will play out of as they prepare for the P.E.I. Tankard.
Meanwhile, Robbie Doherty was preparing to skip an intermediate team in Charlottetown this season in what would have been his 16th season as a member at the capital city club.
The news of the temporary closure was upsetting.
“There’s been a lot of history there. I’ve had some great times there, great memories of my life and a lot of heartbreak there,” he said. “It’s kind of sad to see the doors locked.”
His squad was able to secure time in Cornwall this season, but Doherty said they look forward to the day the facility reopens.
"It holds a pretty special place in all of our hearts,” the Charlottetown resident said. "It’s a place we’ve been going to for 16 years now. It’s kind of just part of our DNA here in Charlottetown.
“Obviously, anything we can do to support it, we will do that.”
He wanted to recognize Harris, Kevin Champion, the rest of the ice crew and the many others who volunteer so much time to the club.
“We want to definitely thank them for trying everything they could and donating so much of their own time to the cause of keeping the curling club going.”
Rental income
About half of the club's business comes from rentals.
“The closure affects a lot more than just the members of the club,” Harris said. “It affects businesses that host events at our curling rink (and) citizens that just come for a good time on a Friday night.”
The club has also been negatively impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19 strain) pandemic.
“We lost one of our biggest months of rental income and we lost the national firefighters’ championship,” Harris said.
Murdoch said the Charlottetown club has been a “cornerstone of P.E.I. curling” for decades.
“It’s a sad thing to hear when a club has problems such as they’re experiencing,” Murdoch said.
He recalled that when the Crapaud club went through a similar situation in 2015 some members went to Cornwall and others to Summerside for the season. When their club reopened the following season, they rejoined their home club.
“I just hope that we can help some of the Charlottetown members get back on the ice in the early part of the season,” Murdoch said. “And I really do truly hope that they get their equipment problems sorted sooner rather later and get everybody back to play this great game.”
