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December 28, 2018 - 1:30 PM
PENTICTON - A snowplow backed into a gas meter causing a Penticton arena to close temporarily.
City of Penticton facilities supervisor Chris Schmidt says as soon as the meter is fixed the McLaren Arena will be up and running.
"(The broken gas meter) does not affect the ice itself," he says. "We can open the doors and start skating. It’s not like we have to make ice which takes five to seven days tops. So that’s the silver lining of this."
On Boxing Day, Dec. 26, Schmidt received a call at 10 a.m. notifying him that the gas meter was destroyed during routine cleaning. He says none of the parts were salvageable.
"We had vehicular protection around it, but (the small snowplow) still managed to knock that over, hit the meter, and basically impale the piping into the back of the meter," Schmidt says.
So far the damage to the walls have been repaired by city staff. Now they are waiting on Fortis B.C. to fix the meter, which is expected to happen on Jan. 2 or Jan 3.
The gas fires the hot water tank, meaning there is currently no hot water in the building so staff cannot operate the Zamboni to clean the ice.
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