Revamping the club

TRURO - There's plenty to be excited about this year at the Truro Curling Club.
Club member Colleen Pinkney and her teammates Wendy Currie, Karen Hennigar and Susan Creelman are representing Canada at the World Senior Curling Championship in Chelyabinsk, Russia, April 16 to 24.
Normally that would create enough excitement around the joint, except the club is also sporting a $60,000 facelift for the
season.
"This is the first night I've been here and I'm really impressed," Pinkney said during the club's open house Monday. "At the meetings people were really excited to see positive changes."
Members weren't saying things like that at the end of last season. The roof was leaking at the south side of the building, which caused the lights over sheet 1 to stop working and power bills for the ice plant and lights were hitting the roof.
Over the summer the club made the decision to start the first phase of a five-year plan to modernize the facility.
First to be fixed was the roof. Next came a new ceiling and energy efficient lights, replacing the old models that had been put in place when the club was rebuilt in 1962 after a fire.
The energy efficient lights use only a third of the power of the old ones and are much brighter, thanks to the enclosed ceiling which helps reflect light. It also reflects heat from the ceiling back up and away from the ice surface, helping ease the load on the ice plant.
"I'm really encouraged by the look," said president Peter Burgess. "The old ceiling looked ugly with the rafters. The new ceiling brings a better look and its brighter and we've been getting a lot of good feedback."
The changes seem to be working as icemaker Wayne Sissons was able to put ice in three days earlier than last year.
Most of the funding came from the club's betterment fund, which was started by its executive 10 years ago to make improvements by drawing dues from each member. The executive was planning on making the changes, but decided to do it over the summer with the leaky roof.
"The ceiling needed to be fixed," Burgess said. "And if we were fixing the lights we thought we might as well fix the ceiling too."
The next step in the plan is to install a new ice-making plant, and in the future the club plans to make itself more accessible and upgrade its washrooms, among other things. The club's executive is expecting an overall price tag of $300,000. Burgess said the improvements will help the club host more competitions, but will also create a better atmosphere for its members.
"We want to give people good ice so they can come out and make shots and have fun," he said. "Just like a golf course wants good greens."
In all, Burgess said there's lots of excitement around the club.
"There's a lot of good things happening right now," Burgess said. "It's creating a lot of excitement and hopefully it will get people out and having fun because that's really why we're here."

sports@trurodaily.com