听
听
We knew the day was coming. It didn鈥檛 make it any easier.
The demolition crews went to work on Tuesday afternoon to tear down the Civic Auditorium. And they moved quickly. Much of the old barn was in piles of wood and metal by the end of the day.
The Civic鈥檚 days were numbered the moment the city announced its plans in 2006 to construct a new arena. And once construction began on the venue that would be known as Affinity Place, people were questioning how long it would be before the Civic met its end.
As it turned out, the Civic remained open for about 6 1/2 years after the first events were held at Affinity Place. Many would have expressed shock back in 2011 if you would have told them the Civic would still be hosting hockey games and other events in 2017.
A year ago, it appeared the Civic would be around for a while. There was talking of upgrading the heating in the arena. But first there would need to be an engineering survey completed. After all, why sink hundreds of thousands of dollars into an arena that might be nearing the end?
So when the survey came back and the results weren鈥檛 good, Estevan city council voted to indefinitely close the old arena last November. At that time, many believed the Civic had played its last game.
Yes, there was a grassroots effort to keep it open, and a second opinion from another engineering firm, and a vow by council to reopen the rink if the insurance came through.
But the insurance was the caveat, and when the insurance company said no, and other insurance companies said no, we knew the Civic was doomed. There wasn鈥檛 going to be a last-minute reprieve, a court challenge or a designation as a heritage site.
The final blow wasn鈥檛 from city management, city council, a fire or an act of God. The arena鈥檚 future was ultimately decided by an out-of-town company who looked at the structural concerns and decided the Civic had to remain closed.
It鈥檚 sad to see that what was once an arena now laying in piles. It鈥檚 hard to fathom that once the demolition is complete and everything is hauled away, a parking lot will remain.
A large crowd gathered to watch the demolition of the building. Some wanted to witness the process. Others wanted to say goodbye. 听
I鈥檝e made my feelings known about the Civic previously. Yes, it was old, antiquated and an eyesore. You could call it a dump. But it was our dump.
It was at one time a state-of-the-art arena, but it didn鈥檛 age well, especially since the standards for arenas changed so quickly. Low ceilings, narrow concourses and small ice surfaces didn鈥檛 remain en vogue for long.
It鈥檚 hard to believe that a public building without a sprinkler system could be allowed to stay open for as long as it did in this day and age.
Arenas aren鈥檛 known for gracefully aging. It鈥檚 why you don鈥檛 find many 60-year-old arenas out there.
But anyone who鈥檚 been in Estevan for an extended period of time would have been in the Civic for something, whether it be a hockey game, a graduation ceremony or a community event. Or maybe they completed a few laps around the concourse, which often doubled as a walking track during the day.
Even after Affinity Place opened, many people still preferred the concourse inside the Civic for walking and jogging, despite the stairs at the east end.
Perhaps people cursed under their breath because of the lack of air conditioning during grad in June, or they wondered why the lights needed a few minutes to turn on.
But even the harshest critics knew it was our arena, and a wonderful part of so many people鈥檚 lives.
Every arena eventually gets torn down. The Power Dodge Ice Centre and the Power Dodge Curling Centre are both over 40 years old, and are into the second half of their respective life spans. Both will eventually meet the same fate as the Civic.
I鈥檒l admit that I was a little emotional on Tuesday afternoon when the demolition equipment applied its first few strokes to the Civic鈥檚 north wall, gouging the wood away from the building, and leaving it in a heap. It wasn鈥檛 easy to watch.
But it was inevitable. It just came a few years earlier than we wanted.
听
听
