Friday night was the last time any skating was done on the ice surface at the Co-op rink in Kindersley after the ice plant had a failure that caused both ice surfaces to be unusable for a time, but with some creative work the West Central Events Centre and Curling rink ice surfaces were saved for the time being. With the ice plant running just one of the two compressors since then, the Co-op ice surface was sacrificed to maintain the other two, and while the final equipment fixes should be done today the ice surface itself won't be ready for this weekend.

We talked with Facilities and Operations Manager for the town of Kindersley Carl Butchler shortly before 11:00am Tuesday morning, and he's been at the head of a lot of work being put in to get things repaired and get the ice plant back up to full operation.

"The plant went down for numerous reasons but the one part that really failed us as a matter of fact is on its way. I just took the phone call from the refrigeration tech so he should be here within an hour and then we'll be able to get both compressors up and running at 100% sometime today, and then I'll be looking at putting the Co-op arena ice back in and hopefully have it done by Monday if everything goes right."

With the part being replaced by noon, the ice plant should be making ice by Friday. While many part of the ice plant failed, it was all a result of a single valve failing that lead things down the line to fail altogether. With the final part being replaced today, Butchler believes that this should be a fix that keeps things running smoothly for the rest of the season.

"The valve is coming in, so it'd be a new part, but it's just like any wear and tear on any motors and any compressors. Hopefully this should not be an issue going forward this year."

Work on repairing the ice surface has been a constant over the last few days around Kindersley between a large number of people with work starting before 7:00pm Friday night and continuing through the night into the morning Saturday. While also thanking the community for their patience in the matter, Butchler was also thankful to the people who've taken the time to help him with the fix in that time.

"I'd really like to thank the curling rink staff for helping us out with the cleaning out of the Co-op Arena, Kyle Adamson who stuck around and gave me more support until the wee hours of Saturday morning. A lot of people chipped in bringing us a hydraulic pump to do a complete oil change on air compressor, there's a lot of community helped and I unfortunately at this time can't remember that gentleman's name, but yeah, there was a lot of people that helped out in many different ways."