January 29, 2009

Mountain States Youth Hockey Association - The Renegades

PO BOX 336841   -    Greeley, CO  80633-0615

Phil Paolilli - CAHA President  

Ralph Bammert - USA Hockey Risk Management 

I want to thank you both for the opportunity to brief the collective associations at the Colorado Amateur Hockey Associations Annual Winter Meeting, January 28, 2009 and update everyone on status of The Mountain States Ice Rink. 

We all desire to place the negativity of this experience behind us, yet also offer our experience and resources to anyone within Colorado.  We as an association have gained a great deal of resources through the last month and some resources we have not even called upon yet, such as Star Rinks, which we will be sourcing in early spring. 

Please contact me and let me know a day in the coming weeks you both desire to meet me at the Mountain States Ice Rink and tour the playing surface and locker rooms, so you both have peace of mind that our facility is safe for all our players and visiting teams.   

Also feel free to forward this letter and the additional back up to the CCYHL / CDYHL AND RMYHL Associations.  You both have my contact information and if you need anything additional from me please contact me directly. 

In closing I would be very remiss without extending a great deal of thanks to all the associations under the CAHA umbrella whom have reached out to us over the last three weeks, including our own parents.  I also thank both of you again for giving us direction from your resources and supporting us through this for the sake of our players.  

A very special thanks to Mat Nagy and the Greeley City Officials, Dale Lyman, his fire fighters and EMT’s of the Greeley / Evans Fire Department and Don Hobart President of Western Comfort Systems Inc.  These three bodies working together have created a safe environment for all our players to enjoy the game of hockey, as well as for the parents, officials and visiting team coaches to know their players are in a safe environment, we can’t place words to that.   

Larry MacDonald

President

Mountain States Hockey Association

Attached Documents:

1. Detailed Improvements to Mountain States Ice Rink - Letter from Don Hobart - President Comfort Air Systems Inc

2. Inspection Letter from Dale Lyman - Greeley / Evans Fire Department

3. Mechanical Inspection of equipment

January 14, 2009

USA Hockey / CAHA / CCYHL / CDYHL Board of Directors and Membership

I write to you today as the newly-elected President of the Mountain States Youth Hockey Association.  Days into my term, we are faced with an issue which has affected all of us in the hockey community of Colorado.  I truly hope all embrace the fact that The Mountain States Youth Hockey Association would never knowingly place players, fans, coaching staff, officials and extended hockey family in harm's way. 

We are not the owners of the rink.  This is our home base and we will be taking numerous steps to address concerns of our own association and those of our extended hockey community.  We are both shocked and regretful for all those who have been involved with this situation.  We hope the steps we take over the next two weeks will regain the faith of those affected by this situation and our actions will allow them to return to our rink with confidence. 

Over the course of the last five days the following has taken place, I personally was at the rink the entire weekend and I worked along side the fire department during these times, and coached the Peewee A game Saturday:

On Saturday, January 10^th, we had an evacuation of the rink due to high levels of carbon monoxide in the air, both on the ice surface and the viewing areas.  After the rink was ventilated the Evans Fire Department gave us the approval to continue the use of the building.  We asked the fire department to continue to monitor the facility through the Summit / Renegades Peewee Game, which they did and the carbon monoxide levels remained low through this game.

On Sunday, January 11^th, we installed carbon monoxide units in eight locations of the rink.  At approximately 11:23 am, the carbon monoxide detector in the viewing area sounded and one of our association’s parents called the fire department to assist with the alarm.  We evacuated the rink and worked with the fire department to force additional ventilation in for the rink and allow players and parents from the Glenwood Association and Renegades Midget teams and The Vail and Renegades Peewee A teams to return to t he locker rooms and remove their equipment. 

At this time we sought the advice of the Fire Marshall and all agreed it was in the best interest for all to remove the Certificate of Occupancy from the rink and seek out the reasons for the repeated high levels of carbon monoxide on Monday morning, although they were dropping again with the ventilation taking place.

On Monday, January 12^th, I spent the day with the Ownership of the rink, the City of Greeley Building Inspector, The Division Chief of the Union Colony Fire Department and the President of Western Comfort Air Systems, Inc. 

The day was spent isolating the cause of the higher than normal levels of Carbon Monoxide in the arena.  After detailed inspections, it was determined that the high levels of CO were brought on by a combination of the ice edger and Zamboni being used without a strong ventilation system to clean the air in the building.  The detailed inspection did not have any corrective measures required with mechanical issues within and around the building. 

The Board of Directors has agreed to start a fundraiser and invest our own association dollars to immediately ensure the rink’s safety and we appointed new board members to monitor the safety issues of the rink.  The board members will work closely with the City Inspectors, Fire Marshall and other professionals to ensure the building is safe and to code in the future.

Moving Forward:

We have critical areas of the rinks operations that will be addressed over the course of the next two weeks to ensure we have a safe environment for all who enter the building and/or skate on the ice in practice and/or games. 

There will be a new and current to code alert system and air ventilation system designed and installed, inspected and passed by the Fire Marshall and City Building Inspector.  This inspection and certificate will be displayed in the lobby of the rink for all to see.

During this time we will be conducting rink maintenance on the ice surface, locker rooms and restrooms and construct a Zamboni garage on the exterior of the garage. 

The dasher boards and glass will have the gaps fixed to prevent an odd bounce or a stick to be lodged during practice or competition.  Glass seams replaced to prevent loose glass plates and the players benches and penalty box door latches will be fixed for ease of opening and closing.  

We will also be repairing netting in some areas of the rink which need replacing for the capture of loose pucks during play.

All of these new build, mechanical installation and basic maintenance items are being monitored by the City Building Inspection Office, Union Colony Fire Department, and Western Comfort Systems, Inc., from design, installation, testing, and ongoing use, with ongoing inspections in the future quarterly. 

After these steps are taken and all aspects are in place we will return to normal practices and leagues games at the Mountain States Ice Arena, but not until. 

We have been given a completion time of two weeks, possibly more, based on the availability of equipment required. 

If we can not meet our league scheduled games we will seek to reschedule games, and this process has already started internally with various tiers. 

Everyone within our association understands the seriousness of this situation and we have never had any issues with this type in the three years we have been playing and practicing in this rink. 

We extend our sincere apologies to the families affected by the high levels of carbon monoxide both within our immediate Renegade family, our extended families, especially the team players and family members of the Arvada association.  We are thankful to hear that all are recovering and also appreciate the teams that have sent their thoughts and support to us.       

We also wish to extend our thanks to The City of Greeley Building Inspectors, Union Colony Fire Department, The Ventilation Team of Western Comfort Systems, Inc., and Arena Systems and Supplies, for their immediate assistance in a substantial inspection of the ice arena and offering direction within the scope of the project areas. 

In closing we will continue to update you all through this process and we hope we have ice for our association players in the near future so they may get back to the game we all are passionate about.

Cordially,

Larry MacDonald

President

Mountain States Youth Hockey Association

January 14, 2009

The Renegades would also like to give a big thanks to Bill Whirty and Fort Collins Park and Rec employees who groom the lake for everyone to enjoy and thanks for allowing us to use it we will be back Thursday and possibly through the weekend with less players, but still utilizing the facility.

January 13, 2009

A Message for our Association Members

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

On behalf of the entire Renegades Board of Directors, I want to take this opportunity to update you all on the current status with The Mountain States Ice Arena. 

I spent the day yesterday, Monday, with the Ownership of the rink, the City of Greeley Building Inspector (Matt Wagy), the Division Chief of Union Colony Fire Department (Dale Lyman), and the President of Western Comfort Systems, Inc. (Donald Hobart).

The day was spent isolating the cause of the higher than normal levels of Carbon Monoxide in the arena.  After detailed inspections, it was determined that the high levels of CO were brought on by a combination of the ice edger and Zamboni being used without a strong ventilation system to clean the air in the building.  The inspection did give a clean bill of health to our gas furnace, water heating system, locker rooms, viewing room, and bathroom ventilation to include the director of hockey’s office.

The board held an emergency meeting last night and voted to invest association dollars to immediately ensure the rink’s safety.  Three critical areas of the rinks operations will be addressed and repaired so it has the appropriate alert system, air ventilation, and proper Zamboni storage area over the course of the next two weeks. 

This will mean we will work with the City, Union Colony Fire Department, and Western Comfort Systems, Inc. to design, install, test, and have ongoing inspections of a complete ventilation system with CO monitoring alarms for The Mountain States Ice Arena.  We will also work closely with the City and a local contractor to design, build, and inspect a Zamboni garage on the property for daily rink operations. 

Finally, again with the city and a local contractor, we will have the ice rink in full compliance with the City of Greeley’s building inspection.  After these steps are taken, executed, inspected, and approved by the three parties who are guiding us through the process, we will return to normal practices at the Mountain States Ice Arena.  We have been given a completion time of one to maybe two weeks.   

Everyone on the board and the ownership of the rink understand the seriousness of this situation.  We will continue to seek the guidance of experts in this field to ensure a safe and healthy environment for our kids and everyone that comes to the Mountain States Ice Arena.

It has come to our attention that this is not an isolated incident.  It has occurred at other rinks in the past.  We want to not only correct this situation immediately, but hopefully bring awareness to other rinks to make sure they all have appropriate ventilation systems and CO monitors installed in their facilities also. 

We would like to offer our sincere apologies to the families affected by the high levels of CO, both within our immediate Renegade family, our Leagues family team of Arvada and all the teams that visited our arena this past weekend.  We are thankful to hear that all are recovering.  We also appreciate the teams that have sent their thoughts and support to us.       

We also wish to extend our thanks to the parties involved with this project for assisting us in a substantial inspection of the ice arena and offering direction within the scope of the project;  The City of Greeley, Union Colony Fire Department, and the staff of Western Comfort Systems, Inc.

In closing, please keep in close contact with your team managers and the Renegades web site for daily updates on alternate practice locations until we are able to return to our home facility.  We are working with surrounding rinks to secure ice and run practices during the course of this project. 

Cordially,

Larry MacDonald – Association Board President