If the walls of the Memorial Arena could talk.
Serving as a community focal point for decades, the ice surface has developed homegrown NHL stars and provided lasting memories of junior hockey glory with the storied history of the Cranbrook Colts (among 0thers).
During a grand reopening ceremony on April 27, Kootenay East MLA Tom Shypitka pointed to the row of banners hanging from the rafters.
“Our arenas are basically the hubs of our communities in a lot of ways,” Shypitka said. “You can look at the banners up here on the roofs and they tell a lot of different stories, hold a lot of different memories.”
But collective experiences beyond the championship banners are just as special.
Generations of Cranbrook residents grew up in that building while pursing their passions on skates, whether it was learning how to stop, do crossovers or land an axel.
Goals were scored, saves were made and salchows were landed as kids and youth formed core memories with parents, grandparents and everyone in between cheering on from the stands.
When it was time for the ice to come out in the spring and summer, the arena hosted box lacrosse and while also holding concerts, community events and high school graduation ceremonies of yore.
While it has a storied hockey history as the home ice of professional hockey players such as the Neidermayer brothers, Jon Klemm and Brad Lukowich, it has also had it’s brush with musical legends. In 1957, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and and Wanda Johnson performed at a “poorly attended” (per the Cranbrook Courier) show that brought out 300 fans.
Now, the arena has been given new life, after the arches supporting the roof structure were replaced with steel beams following the discovery of deterioration in the old wooden beams last September. The project included additional upgrades, as the building was closed to the public for six months to ensure public safety and facilitate the work.
Local contractors and suppliers — led by New Dawn Developments — along with sports organizations, city staff and more banded together to complete the project as fast as possible in order to reopen it to the c0mmunity.
The City of Cranbrook budgeted $3 million in borrowing for the project, while the Regional District of East Kootenay also contributed $500,000.
The Memorial Arena has been a community asset for over 70 years.
On July 12, 1949, the Cranbrook city council of the day approved the construction of the Memorial Arena, a project that had been bandied about for roughly 20 years at the time.
The arena was to serve as a memorial to honour the men and women of Cranbrook and District who gave their lives in service to their country during the Second World War.
It was budgeted at nearly $40,000, with $26,000 coming from the Gyro and Rotary clubs, along with a $13,000 contribution from the City of Cranbrook.
As tends to be the case today, the project eventually tallied up $10,000 in cost overruns.
“At the end of the day, it sure turned out to be a pretty darned good legacy investment for around $50,000,” said Price.
While the arena has a longstanding legacy of sports, the mayor also cited the building’s memorialization of those killed in the Second World War as a key factor in proceeding with the roof repairs.
“The current undertaking did more than just preserve a local ice surface for another 30-50 years,” said Mayor Wayne Price. “It preserved a legacy, an intention, a memory, for the people of our community who were so severely impacted by the sorrows and the hardships of the time.”
Local contractors and suppliers involved with the roof upgrade project:
New Dawn Developments, Bolen Engineering, Fabrite, Spartan Scaffolding, BC Hydro, McElhanney Engineering, Turk Construction Services, Kimberley Electric, Englobe, Fortis Natural Gas, Christine Ross Architecture, GFL Waste Removal, Salvador Ready Mix, AJC Construction Services, Western Roofing, Artech Consulting, Home Hardware, Cascade Engineering, Jett Concrete Pumping, Edge Concrete Pumping, Economy Vacuum Tankers, and Mytan Vac Truck