southeastdistrict

Do you know what your refrigeration plant operator requirements are under the recently introduced Boiler and Pressure Vessel Regulations (2017)? 

Are you operating your facility in compliance with these Regulations? Do you know the size of your refrigeration plant? These are critically important questions. As we have seen in the past, refrigeration systems can be very dangerous when serious failures happen 

On Page 35 of the Regulations, Section 53 states: 

(1) No owner of a refrigeration plant with a capacity greater than 45 tonnes but not greater than 100 tonnes shall cause or permit the refrigeration plant to be operated unless it is operated under general supervision by a holder of a refrigeration plant operator’s licence, a holder of a refrigeration engineer’s licence or the holder of a power engineer’s licence of the appropriate class.

(2) No owner of a refrigeration plant with a capacity greater than 100 tonnes shall cause or permit the refrigeration plant to be operated unless it is operated under general supervision by a holder of a refrigeration engineer’s licence or the holder of a power engineer’s licence of the appropriate class.

– 8 Dec 2017 c B-5.1 Reg 2 s53.

What Does This Mean?
So what does this mean for the typical arena or curling rink? In short, your refrigeration plant needs to be properly supervised to comply with the Regulations if your plant is over 45 tonnes. If your plant is less than 45 tonnes, the Regulations do not require the refrigeration plant to be supervised. Most ice plants are in excess of 45 tonnes.

If your plant is between 45-100 tonnes, the owner of the facility is required to have a supervisor with a Refrigeration Plant Operator’s License. This can be achieved with the successful complete of our Arena Operator Level 2 Course, and with the subsequent purchase of a TSask Operator License. The Chief Operator does not have to be in the facility at all times, but they must be easily reached in case of an issue. 

Refrigeration plants larger than 100 tonnes require a supervisor with a Refrigeration Engineer’s Certificate. This certification can be obtained through Saskatchewan Polytechnic. 

For More Information
Technical Safety Authority of Saskatchewan (TSask) Inspectors perform regular inspections of ice plants throughout Saskatchewan. If you don’t know who your inspector is or when they are scheduled to come, please call TSask for this information. They are important partners to ensure the safety and proper operation of recreation facilities. Check your facility’s “License to Operate” for additional information pertaining to your refrigeration plant. 

It is up to the owner to ensure the refrigeration plant is properly supervised. When in doubt, refer to the Regulations or call TSask for further clarification. You can reach TSask by phone at 1-866-530-8599 or by email at customerservice@tsask.ca.

Tim Hanna
Facilities and Training Consultant 
Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association
(306) 780-9324
thanna@spra.sk.ca

1. Why did your community choose to build a spray park (what do you hope to achieve)? Who are your intended users?

Our committee identified a need for additional recreational facilities in our growing community so we got together with the goal of building a spray park. With the help of the Rick Hansen Foundation, we extended that goal to make it a fully accessible spray park for the physically and visually impaired. Anyone will be able to use it: any age, any ability level. 

 

2. What key considerations did your committee have to think about in the planning process? How long did it take to raise funds?

In a broad sense, our main considerations were probably similar to other comparable projects: We needed land to build the park on, infrastructure (water/sewer/drainage, etc.), a contractor to actually build the park, and of course community buy-in, in order to raise the required funds. We spoke with a few other communities that had recently built spray parks to gather information on where to even begin. We then approached village council in Sedley, to run our crazy idea by them, and were met with full support. We hosted a multitude of fundraisers and tried our best to plan those around seeding and harvest considering we are a farming community. We also applied for a number of grants, and eventually made an appeal to our local business community as well. It took three years and a very dedicated committee to raise the funds. 

3. What made your project a success?

There are three things that made this a success story. One is the support from our local council and administrators who provided us with invaluable support and assistance from Day one. Second is having a committee that is willing to put in a lot of volunteer time to make things happen. We have 13 members and it’s hard to imagine this project coming to life without a full team effort. Finally, and maybe most importantly, is the support from the people of Sedley and surrounding communities. If we didn’t have the community support, we couldn’t have done it. 

4. How did the project happen? And When?

After approaching a few different companies in our first year as a committee, we decided to go with a company called PlayQuest. They have been great to work with through the whole process: friendly, communicative, accommodating, and knowledgeable. They are currently in the middle of construction and will be done before school is out for summer! We still have a couple of the accessibility features to add once the park is constructed, so we hope to have everything complete by mid-summer. 

5. Any other comments?

As far as we have been able to confirm, this is the only spray park in Saskatchewan that is accessible to the visually impaired, so we are quite proud of that!

 

Back Row (l-r): Jana Leier, Cristalee Allan, Giselle Szczepanski, Leandra Strass, Leanne Haus, Stephanie Makellky, Tracy Brown
Front Row (l-r): Deanne Makellky, Lisa Selenski, Ashli Brick, Tara Nestman
Missing: Jennifer Deck, Nichole Leier

Southeast Connection Sport, Culture & Recreation District held their Annual General Meeting on May 31, at the Bear Claw Casino.

Southeast Connection would like to welcome our newly nominated Board of Directors. Kristeen Cherpin – Radville, Karen Holloway – Wapella, Kim Hotomani – Carry the Kettle First Nation, Wendy Johnson – Weyburn and Jonathan Pasap – White Bear First Nation.

 

2017-2018 Year in Review

Southeast Connection is excited to share stories from communities who make things happen! Check out this fundraising event that Odessa plans annually!

Article Credit to Annette Gaetz, Odessa

The community of Odessa started tractor pulls in 2015 – so for three (3) years now. This event sparked from the passion of a local business in our community, “Hoffart’s”. They went in 1977 to their first tractor pull at Exhibition Park in Regina and got hooked and pulled until 1988 and then took a break. Then in early 2000’s pulls started to spring up in the prairie provinces.  The younger generation of Hoffart’s got wind of it and took their tractor out of storage (Second Attempt was the name of the tractor). Their first pull was in Swift Current in 2014.

It was kind of like the movie, “Field of Dreams” – build it and they will come.  The Hoffart’s approached some individuals in Odessa to help start up this event, and we basically built the track from scratch on a field that the family owned on the south side of Odessa. The first year was a ton of work to get the track and whole area ready for the pulls, but every year it gets to be a little less of work!

We have tractors and trucks coming from all three prairie provinces, Minnesota and North Dakota. The weekend consists of truck and tractor pulls (4WD, Minis, Antiques, Smokers, 2WD, Modified), antique tractor pulls, monster truck rides, concession, beer gardens, karaoke, and a live band.

The pulls themselves have been very successful, people of all ages keep coming back every year (we had over 1000 in attendance our first day in 2017), the community volunteering, and the sponsorship has been excellent, with some sponsors calling us to give their support!

The event is a key fundraiser for the community – funds raised all go back to the community, and we have done very well on the profit margin end of it. We have about 130 – 150 volunteers who contribute to the event, and our community population is only 250. The first-year planning took about eight months – and second and third year planning was six months.

The date for the 2018 Thunder on the Prairies is July 6-7, 2018. Advice to other communities: “Small towns! Never say never!”.  So many small towns in Saskatchewan are now pulling off some major events as fundraisers for their communities, with their hard work, dedication and volunteerism! It is volunteers that make our tractor pull event a success! Check out the Event Facebook page!

On March 28, a total of 27 leaders from various south east communities gathered to listen to Shelley Thoen-Chaykoski of TC Consulting to learn about grant writing and tips and tools for success!

Testimonials from Participants:
“Fantastic information that will help me so much in writing grant proposals.”
“Shelley really understands where participants are coming from. It’s easy to relate to the information she is presenting.”
“Have been to many grant writing workshops, this by far has been the best – very useful knowledge.”
“Love that they offer workshops in smaller communities as opposed to always having to travel to a city.”