The twinning of Pason Centennial Arena is getting that much closer to being a shovel ready project.

Town Council approved on Monday the narrowing down of contractors to build the new add-on to the arena down to three companies.

Out of the 13 companies who put in a bid to build it, CANA, Scott Builders and Clark Builders.

Community Services Director Susan Laurin says the next stage for the three companies is to come up with a design for the twinning.

"Those three companies are being asked to prepare a detailed design so they'll get about 60% of the drawings and details completed," she says. "Then the town in 6 weeks time will look at those three proposals and evaluate what is the best evaluated tender or what's the best option and what's will we get the best value for."

Laurin says once that process is done, by summer time you should see construction start at the rink.

"From council they would award the project and authorize the budget and hopefully if council authorizes and agrees with the proposal we would get shovels in the ground as early as the end of August."

The original start-up for the project was to begin in the spring but after council's initial review of the twinning. A parking assessment was done to find out the best solution for the project and that lead to a short delay.

Laurin says now that it's over and eventual tenders soon to be presented to the Town. She says she expects the rink to still be fully operational in their original expected completion time.

"It would really depend on the proposals that we receive back and the details in the proposals. I'm anticipating most facilities of this size take approximately 14-18 months to construct."

The Town is hoping the twinning will be ready by the 2017-18 hockey and skating season.

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