Hockey fans finally had the opportunity to sit in comfort with new seating at Falher Regional Recreation Complex on Dec. 11 when the Falher Pirates hosted the Spirit River Rangers in the North Peace Hockey League. The durable structure has a seating capacity of 600 people.

The Town of High Prairie and its recreational counterparts are definitely in the giving mood this holiday season. That much and more became evident this past week when the municipality, along with the Sports Complex Society and High Prairie Recreation Board, announced a steal of a deal to sell their old arena compressor unit to McLennan for $1. Negotiations between the four sides has been ongoing for the better part of the last two months. High Prairie Mayor Rick Dumont says there was likely an element of disbelief in McLennan at first when the offer was made to basically give the compressor system – valued at about $150,000 or more – away to their northerly neighbours. “I think the folks in McLennan must have thought we were joking at first,” Dumont says. But it was anything but a joking matter. High Prairie’s old compressor unit became obsolete when a new system was purchased as part of the addition of a second ice surface at the local arena. That system operates the new ice surface, Sports Palace and the curling rink in addition to providing heat recovery for heating purposes inside the new building. Dumont says the old system has been extremely reliable in operating the Sports Palace and curling rink and has been used for less than half of its expected lifespan. Sports Complex Society spokesperson Lindsay Pratt says they knew McLennan was in need of a compressor system and, rather than bicker over price, thought they should just do their neighbouring community a favour. “We knew we could part out the system and recover some money, but it’s worth more as a whole unit.” “Over the years, McLennan has been more than gracious by helping us out when we experienced a shortage of ice time availability for our youth,” he says. “This is a way for us to repay them for their support.” The generous offer comes four days after McLennan town council rubber stamped a motion to pursue an agreement with High Prairie to acquire the valuable equipment. The decision was reached last week following a motion from Councillor Dwayne Stout, who requested that a binding agreement be drafted formally outlining plans for the acquisition of the ice plant and its components. McLennan hopes to utilize government grant funding to coordinate the relocation and reinstallation of the compressor components CIMCO Refrigeration has estimated the cost of dismantling and moving the system at approximately $200,000. Components of the system are expected to be used in the construction of a new curling rink next to the arena, helping to significantly reduce costs for a project which carries a price tag of roughly $3 million.