Memorial Gardens renovation on target

Construction Manager Ken Allen explains upgrades and renovations to Memorial Gardens Friday during a media tour.

With deadlines tight and the clock counting down to the start of the OHL season project managers at the Memorial Gardens renovation site are pulling out all the stops and working full on to get the rink completed on time.

Although time is a luxury at this point Construction Manager Ken Allen, city officials and Battalion officials feel it is important to keep resident informed about the project, so they took members of the local media on a guided tour of facility Friday afternoon.

Allen says with the project is ahead of schedule the team is not losing any sleep and they will have the ice ready to go for training camp August 28th and stands ready for the inaugural puck drop when the North Bay Battalion host the Peterborough Petes for the home opener October 11th.

In bringing the building up to snuff for an OHL team Allen says NHL and OHL officials have been through the building and agree the Gardens is an outstanding facility and would be a shame if it was replaced. So his job was to complete the laundry list of upgrades needed to bring the facility in line with other OHL teams and that includes installing air conditioning, new ventilation system, lounges, corporate boxes, elevator, new entrance and a state of the art media centre and scoreboard clock.

Battalion president Mike Griffin says the effort they have witnessed to getting things ready for the upcoming OHL season from construction to ticket sales has been 10 out of 10 and he has no doubts that a wonderful hockey legacy is set to begin in the Bay.