Another community in southeast Saskatchewan is seeing major upgrades done to their local arena.

Renovations on the Fast Centennial Arena in Carnduff began in March, and things are on track to be completed in time for the arenas 50th birthday.

"We started raising money in 2012," explained Carnduff's Secretary Treasurer Jason Hollinger. "In 2015 we applied for a grant through the federal government and received $450,000. That was used to fix pilasters on one side of the building and the rest of that money is going towards the new boards and the ice slab. The total cost of the project is about one million in the last year or so that we've been doing work."

"We've been slowly updating things. At the time we still weren't sure if we were going to fix what we had or go the route of building new. Whatever we did in 2012 going forward was all with intention that what ever we put in the building is something we could take out and put into a new building if we wanted to. When we got the grant money from the federal government it was quite easy to make the decision that we could fix everything. Our engineer told us we can expect to get another 40 years out of the building."

Now mid way through the month of August, Hollinger says renovations are on schedule to be done by mid September.

"At this point we just finished pouring the slab and in about three more weeks the new boards will be put in and everything should be finished shortly after."

That new slab is a very welcomed addition as it will save a considerable amount of operating costs and cut down time to make the ice

"We were probably a week to ten days to put the ice in. In some places the arena slab had heaved so bad that sixteen feet away from the boards there was a four inch difference in the level of the slab. From the high point to the low point was the difference of six inches, there was places where we were carrying five to six inches of ice just to make it level."

A future upgrade on the list is replacing the old bleachers. The removal of the bleachers was one of the first steps in the demolition process this spring and Hollinger says replacing them will come at a hefty price.

"We will be doing new bleachers, but at this point we don't have the funds to do it for this fall. We are hoping to raise money for next fall or next summer to do that. If we replaced everything that was there we're looking at almost $250,000. If we can get to a point where we can replace the bleachers next year we will lay off on other stuff for a while."

"We've been lucky and hosted hockey day in Saskatchewan a few years ago where we raised just over eighty thousand dollars. Most of that money was used to buy a new Zamboni."

A fundraiser is planned on September 23rd inside the rink to help celebrate the rinks completion and the 50th anniversary.