Sun Peaks is hopeful this ice will be done on its state-of-the-art new Sun Peaks Centre by the end of this year.

Mayor Al Raine says the goal is to have the ice ready by Christmas, and if not then he says it would be ready early in the New Year.

As for where the project is at right now?

“Construction actually started in early April. they actually have the footing, and some of the foundation walls are actually complete. And I believe in the first or second week of July, they’ll start driving screw piles for the roof over the rink,” Raine says.

“Some of the walls on the conference and fitness facilities are actually being constructed off-site, so they’ll just be trucked to the site. So I expect by the end of August, we’ll be close to starting roof work over the ice rink and over the conference and fitness centres.”

Raine says the whole building should be finished next spring. The centre will be capable of holding up to 3,000 users.

Meanwhile, Raine says the project’s cost has been pushed up to just under $9 million – up from $8 million – because of issues with soil at the construction site.

“It involves more than $400,000 dollars worth of piling. We were kind of anticipating some piling work. But we’ve also had some soils that had to be removed because they were not compactible, and we’ve brought in other soils that are compactible.”

The municipality has a $6-million-dollar grant from federal gas tax funding, as has approved a bylaw for a $2-million-dollar loan for the centre as well. Raine says Sun Peaks has about $500,000 in reserves from the Resort Municipality Initiative fund, and says they are scrambling to secure the remaining several-hundred-thousand dollars.