Last week the club sent an email to membership sharing the news that the delivery of the replacement brine pump needed to get the ice plant back up and running is now expected at the end of February. It was originally expected to arrive at the end of January.

Club president Roger Younge said the parts distributor being used by AC Mechanical, the company hired to help the club with ice plant maintenance, had run into delays sourcing the needed piece.

Younge told THE EQUITY the club is still hoping to get a good couple of months out of the ice once the plant is working again, but that how long the club can open will all depend on when the part comes in.

“We’ve gone until the end of April before. Given the circumstances, if we’re going to go to the end of April any year, this seems like the type of year we should do it,” he said, noting that maintaining the ice that late into the spring depends on having cooler weather.

“We have to see when we’ll get the thing, and then we’ll go from there. We want to play as long as we can, because it’s important for us to put the pump through its paces so that next year we’re confident at the start of the year that it’s going to run like it’s supposed to.”

At last month’s MRC Pontiac council meeting, the club was awarded a $23,000 grant to be used for the replacement part.

“Now that we got the money from the MRC, yes we do have some breathing room,” Younge said.

The club has also hosted a variety of fundraisers while the ice has been down – everything from a Warhammer tournament to a chili cook-off – and has received several generous donations from the community that the club plans to acknowledge more formally down the road.

Younge said the money raised to date has helped the club make up the losses it’s suffered because it hasn’t been able to host bonspiels or generate the same amount of bar revenue. This money, combined with ongoing revenue from the club’s golf simulator, will help the club make it through the summer after a much slower winter season.

“We need about $12,000 in April in order to make it through to November, because of equal billing on insurance and electricity and all that kind of stuff.”

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