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Merritton Lions Club Disbands After 56 Years of Operating Local Arena
For Geoff Crane, the highlight of the year at Merritton Lions Club’s Centennial Arena was breaking the ice at the start of the season.
Even the months after, especially when he was riding the Olympic machine, even at 5:30 in the dead of winter it was a joy to get through it smoothly.
“There’s no more fun than being on an ice resurfacing machine in the morning and creating that rink. I loved it. I absolutely loved it.
“It has something to do with a clean rink and then the guys go and play hockey on it and you did it,” said Crane, a Merritton Lion and the arena’s manager for 46 years.
“It just made me very proud to know that we have a good ice surface for everyone. I think we have the best rink on the Niagara Peninsula.”
Crane, 75, is retiring from the arena, which he has managed since 1977, most of those years as an unpaid volunteer. And with Crane leaving, after 56 years the Merritton Lions Club has decided to leave as well, as advised by Crane.
The Merritton Lions have decided not to renew their lease with the City of St. Catharines at the end of May and will move operations to the city at the end of the ice rental season.
The club has operated the single pad arena on Park Avenue since it was built for Canada’s Centennial in 1967.
Crane said he didn’t take his retirement lightly, but it was about time. He’s proud of the years he’s run the arena like his own business and said he started very young and had a real passion for it.
“As a kid in St. Catharines, if you were even remotely interested in hockey, you knew who Vic Teal was. At 11 I realized I would never make the National Hockey League, but I loved hockey and I loved arenas,” he said.
“And here was the opportunity to do what I wanted, albeit as a volunteer, but I think that was even more fun.”
But times are changing and running an arena isn’t what it used to be, Crane said.
Balancing the budget isn’t as easy anymore, and the Lions don’t have the funding sources they used to love to spend on the bingos that brought in big bucks.
Crane said he was previously able to set ice rental prices based on arena expenses and income to get the budget working. When the city built the four-block Seymour-Hannah complex and more ice age became available, he had to lower Merritton’s prices.
The cost of everything else like hydroelectric power, natural gas, and water has gone up, and since COVID-19, like any other business, there’s been a lot of uncertainty.
There’s also the problem of the club’s ice resurfacing machine, which is almost 20 years old and needs replacing, a $110,000 crane that the club doesn’t have.
“Before, I didn’t think about how much the water costs. Now the water bill has gone through the roof. Natural gas has increased by 40 percent in the last year. You look at all these things and you think, holy smokers, I don’t have to worry about any of these things at my age.
Crane said that the Merritton Youth Arena was built by the Merritton Athletic Association and the Merritton Figure Skating Club, but neither organization now exists.
The Lions Club saw the need to build the arena in 1967 as it was difficult for hockey teams to get ice age at St. Catharines after the merger in 1961.
It cost $250,000, with the Lions receiving a $25,000 grant from the city and raising the whopping $225,000 with community support. The building was paid off by 1972.
This year, the City of St. Catharines set aside $250,000 in the 2023 operating budget to continue operating the arena if the Lions decide not to renew their lease.
Phil Cristi, director of community, recreational and cultural services, said the city has not yet determined who will operate the arena — the city or a third party.
It is known to continue to operate as a community rink.
“We want to ensure that the future of Merritton Lions Arena develops on a similar path as it does now. It provides ice and programming not just for Merritton, but for all of St. Catharines, so we want to make sure we keep that going,” Cristi said.
The Merritton Lions will continue to operate the Merritton Community Center adjacent to the arena, also leased from the city.
Crane said he hopes to continue being active in the arena with the senior league that he runs and plays in. He’s awaiting news from parks and figuring out whether the 22 teams, with players ages 50 to 82, will be able to continue using the rink at Merritton next season.
But he won’t be managing payroll anymore, dealing with the city behind the scenes and worrying about paying the bills.
“It’s been a very, very positive experience for me for the most part,” Crane said.
“We all have ups and downs, but I have to admit I’ve had a lot more ups than downs.”
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Source: www.wellandtribune.ca
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