Inspector cites Anchorage over overdue ice arena CO2 valves

A pressure vessel inspector has issued a written citation over 16 CO2 pressure relief valves at the Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson ice arenas. A relief valve vents pressure before a vessel bursts. The memorandum says state code requires replacement every five years. The valves have not been replaced in about a decade. The resolution names no inspector; the state's Mechanical Inspection section oversees pressure vessels in public buildings.

The $38,606 valve replacement, on refrigeration tanks called main receivers and oil reservoirs at the two rinks, sits inside a larger appropriation of up to $936,157 that the Anchorage Assembly is scheduled to read Tuesday, Sept. 15. Tuesday's step is introduction; the public hearing is Oct. 6. The money would come from the arenas' own capital reserve, not from general taxes.

The largest share, $612,000, would replace the Ben Boeke dehumidifier. Another $214,600 would replace the Dempsey Anderson boiler. Both are framed as reliability steps, not responses to failure. A further $42,621 would repair deficient dehumidification systems serving Rinks No. 1 and No. 2 at Dempsey Anderson. And $28,330 would replace three condenser fans that have already failed. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance submitted the request.

The Assembly voted 12-0 on June 26 to award operation of the two arenas to Anchorage Community Ice Management, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Anchorage Hockey Association, for $10 a year plus a $450,010 transition grant. That agreement suspends the 5% deposit of gross revenues into the capital reserve through Jan. 1, 2029, freeing revenue for immediate maintenance. The reserve held about $1.3 million at the time. In June the Assembly also appropriated $42,100 from the same reserve for a failed refrigeration valve and a Zamboni room door at Ben Boeke.

State capital records have described the arenas' 1980s refrigeration systems as aging, costly to repair, and facing obsolete parts since at least 2014.

At a June 18 Assembly work session on the arena contracts, Anchorage Hockey Association president Jeanne Carey said her board "cannot meet our mission to provide youth hockey in Anchorage, which we have been doing for 65 years, unless we have these municipal rinks to operate in."