WESTLOCK – Jubilee Arena is finally free of asbestos and demolition crews are expected to return this week to start final demolition of the 59-year-old facility, a process that began in the early fall.
Town of Westlock CAO Simone Wiley confirmed Dec. 1 that “the additional asbestos abatement has been completed” as at the Nov. 14 Town of Westlock council meeting, operations director Robin Benoit said the demolition bill could rise by as much as $50K after crews found more asbestos that “didn’t get picked up in the original report” that was found “when they started pulling the bleachers out” and from behind a wall. Asbestos is a naturally-occurring fibrous silicate mineral commonly used as a building material until its adverse effects on human health were widely acknowledged in 1970s — the most common diseases associated with chronic exposure to it are asbestosis, the scarring of the lungs due to asbestos inhalation, and mesothelioma, a type of cancer.
With all the asbestos removed, Wiley said Thursday that they’re “expecting the contractors back on site sometime next week.”
Town officials had been hopeful that following the erection of a security fence around the site the week of Oct. 31 that the arena would fall shortly after. Previously, the town had first pegged the week of Sept. 12 and then the week of Sept. 19 for the final phase of the $280,000 demolition as the interior had been previously stripped. As for the additional cost to do the abatement, Benoit told councillors in mid-November it could be as high as $50,000 as crews were working off a previous town-commissioned report that detailed asbestos in the facility.
Project history
Demolition of the town’s first indoor arena was initially budgeted at $1 million and funded via unrestricted reserves in the municipality’s 2022 capital budget —Wiley has stated previously there will be additional costs to level and landscape the site in 2023. Benoit has also said previously that concrete from the arena will be recycled at the local Lafarge Canada site for free and the contractor has given them a credit back on the metal that can be scavenged.
Wiley said Nov. 15 that while they’re disappointed the demo has been continually delayed throughout the fall, along with the revelation of more asbestos on site, they’re content that final bill will be “substantially lower” that what was originally estimated.
Jubilee Arena, which was initially called the Westlock and District Jubilee Family Recreation Centre, opened July 13, 1963, and cost $75,744 to build, while the first hockey game at the facility, played on natural ice as it didn’t yet have an ice plant, was Dec. 29, 1963.
The arena was expected to come down following the opening of the Rotary Spirit Centre (RSC) in 2012, but those plans were shelved following the discovery of asbestos at the site — a report from that year stated that 16 of 26 building-material samples tested positive for the substance.
In late 2018, the council of the day talked about demolishing the building and briefly considered renovating it for use as a warm-storage facility. But when faced with a $1 million price tag for that work, or $900,000 just to bulldoze it, council put the issue on the backburner.
