City plans methodical arena fixes until money for major overhaul

One step at a time. That's the approach one consulting firm is recommending for repairs and renovations to the city's ice arenas, in particular The Barn.

After spending close to $50,000 in October to replace the R-22 refrigerant that had leaked out of the aging pipes and ice plant at the more-than-40-year-old facility, determining options for fixing and replacing the cooling systems at both facilities has become a priority for the city.

It's more complicated than systems simply getting old.

City officials have known for years that something would have to be done since at least 2010, when the Montreal Protocol began requiring phasing out production and import of R-22, an ozone-depleting substance. After December, production will cease entirely.

As long as the direct cooling system (which runs the R-22 in pipes underneath the floor as well as through the ice plant) doesn't leak, that's not a problem.

But it takes close to 5,000 pounds of R-22 to cool The Barn, and 8,000 pounds to cool Northwoods Credit Union Arena next door, so finding and paying for the chemical could become an even more expensive issue in future years.

Ed Zepeda, of McKinstry - a company that works with ice arenas and recreational facilities across the country - explained their recommendations to the Cloquet City Council during its work session Tuesday.

McKinstry suggests the cooling system at The Barn be converted to an indirect system next summer, which would mean replacing the deteriorating pipes below the ice and sand, and adding heat exchangers and making other modifications to the existing compressor plant. Much less R-22 would be required, because the coolant would stay in the ice plant itself and either brine or glycol would run through the floor pipes to cool the ice.

Down the road, when the city has the funding to build a new cooling system at Northwoods, a new ice plant large enough to cool both hockey rinks would be constructed.

Rather than recommending going to a single ammonia plant at a cost of $4- to $5 million for both arenas right away, Zepeda said McKinstry looked for "a phased opportunity to address the most critical portion of the system today that doesn't become a stranded investment a couple years down the road."

"It's a solution in the absence of a lot of money," Zepeda said, estimating the cost of making the changes at The Barn between $600,000 and $750,000, but the floor would be ready for a new shared indirect cooling system in the future.

He blamed the failures in the rink floor for most of the problems at The Barn.

"I think the day were were here, there were a bunch of orange flags in the floor and there were 70-some leaks on about half of the arena," he said. "We decided to put together a solution that fixes the most critical component and try and leave whatever we can until there are additional funds or some other activity around financial aspects."

The good news, he said, is there's plenty of R-22 and it's not illegal to use it.

"If you've got a plant that's working and is efficient on R-22, continue to run R-22 until you have a critical failure," he said. "In this case it was the failure of the floor."

Changing to an indirect system in The Barn will give the city a stockpile of close to 4,000 pounds of R-22, since the new indirect plant will use only 700-800 pounds of R-22 instead of 5,000 pounds.

Councilors unanimously approved $7,000 for a more detailed study of The Barn's cooling system and proposed changes, as well as a detailed look into a better dehumidification system at Northwoods.

'No' to landfillIn spite of a unanimous recommendation from the Cloquet planning commission for approval, Cloquet city councilors said "no" Tuesday to a request from SKB Environmental Landfill to extend its hours of operation to allow for drop-off of wastepaper residue left over from junk mail at any time.

The landfill is located south of Highway 33 and north of Hilltop Park in a large industrial pit, along with several other businesses, including a gravel pit and Sappi storage facility.

The waste comes from the Verso paper mill in Duluth, and is already being trucked to the landfill overnight, and left inside the trailer until the permitted hours of operation. SKB's Kyle Backstrom told the council the trucks probably create more noise now backing up to leave and pick up new trailers than they would if they could simply dump the material and go back to Duluth for another load. The SKB application promised the company would not operate any heavy machinery during the nighttime hours; rather, the intent was simply to dump the waste material.

Ward 1 councilor Bun Carlson said a lot of people are "opposed to extending anything for the landfill, including hours."

At-large councilor Lara Wilkinson agreed: "The residents feel very strongly. It's a slippery slope."

Ward 5 councilor Steve Langley said he'd rather the waste paper product go into the landfill than some other waste materials.

"If we can fill up in shorter time and close it sooner, that would be great," he said.

Mayor Roger Maki said he has been impressed by the landfill operation and supported the request.

When the vote came, Maki was in the minority. Lamb, Carlson, Wilkinson and Ward 4 councilor Kerry Kolodge voted to deny the request.

Private PLA is here to stay

Council chambers were packed with building trades union members during Tuesday's work session for a discussion of the city's Project Labor Agreement (PLA), defined as a type of prehire agreement that governs wages, benefits and working conditions on a specific project.

The city's PLA applied to both public and private projects and was adopted by the council in 2017 and refined in 2018.

Tuesday's discussion was prompted by the unanimous recommendation by the Cloquet Economic Development Authority that the council amend the city code to delete the requirement that private development projects comply with the city's PLA. As now written, City Code Chapter 9.2 requires any private developer using more than $175,000 in direct city funds - loans, grants, Tax Increment Financing (TIF), abatement, bonds - to abide by the PLA.

Community development director Holly Hansen noted that the council cannot grant any exemptions to the PLA requirement and must apply the policy uniformly.

A new senior rental housing project is set to collide with the PLA, Hansen said, explaining that Phase 2 of the Trails Edge duplex housing project for 18 buildings/36 units will cost an estimated $6 million, and developer Jim Kuklis is requesting $1.2 million in TIF assistance to help pay for road construction, sidewalks, utility extensions and more over the life of the housing district. He does not want to be restricted by the terms of a PLA.

According to the staff report, EDA members raised concerns about the PLA agreement restricting business flexibility, including choice of labor, at its February meeting. The vote to recommend the council eliminate the requirement for private projects was unanimous, and included at least one local contractor who serves on the board, John Riihiluoma. Riihiluoma expressed concerns about the "one size fits all" approach of a PLA. Local employment, not necessarily union employment, is also an important goal, he said, noting that each project should stand on its own and requires flexibility.

Hansen said three different companies expressed interest in building at the Cloquet Business Park this year, but no one has committed yet.

"It's just a piece in there when we bring those developers to the table and say 'Here's some of our rules and requirements' and obviously some of those businesses don't plan to work under those types of policies, and would walk away from the project," she said.

Duluth Building and Construction Trades Council president Craig Olson asked the council to keep the PLA as it stands, noting that the agreement guarantees no work stoppages or strikes, and helps keep local trades workers employed.

"We're not looking for a big fight, we're looking for this community to protect construction workers and our contractors," Olson said, noting that PLAs do not require only union contractors, but it does look out for the rights and fair pay and benefits for all workers on a project.

"When developers comes to the community and they want tax abatement, TIFs, or some kind of city taxpayers' money - that's what it is - we just want to make sure our people have a fair opportunity to work on them."

Without taking a vote, as it was simply a work session discussion topic and a request for feedback, several councilors expressed their support for keeping both the private and public project requirements for a PLA, including councilors Carlson, Lamb, Langley and Ward 3 councilor Chris Swanson. Kolodge said he would vote to delete the language if it came to a vote.

Interim city administrator James Barclay said since there was a consensus, staff would not look into changing the PLA language in the city code. Wilkinson suggested that both the EDA and Hansen meet with Olson in the future for more in-depth discussion of ways to work within the confines of the PLA.

The council's next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 7.