Wilmot staff will be reviewing the sight lines of the ice pads at the Wilmot Recreation Centre.

Parks and recreation director Scott Nancekivell said staff has been instructed to look at what changes can be made to improve the area around the penalty box on the Schout Rink.

"Some people don't like looking through the glass," he said.

There is no set time when staff will review the sight lines and report back to council.

"When we have some people look at it and gain some advice," said Nancekivell.

He said there have been no specific complaints from users of the rink.

The motion to review the sight lines was brought forward by Ward 3 councillor Terry Broda.

"As I understood from Nancekivel, that is going to be corrected this year," Broda said of the sight issues.

Broda cited the glass over the penalty box and the railing across the

Correcting a Ministry of Transportation design error at Peel Street and Highway 7/8 in May cost the province $38,500.

Ministry of Transportation area contracts engineer Mike Kelly confirmed the cost last week after the bill came in from the contractor to widen the right turning radius onto Peel Street. Large trucks were having problems negotiating the turn after work was completed.

Kelly said the ministry is still in negotiations with the contractor that worked on the signal lights at Nafziger Road. Once highway upgrades were completed last year, the MTO determined the posts for the signal lights were positioned too close to the road bed. Work to move the lights was completed in June.

Oversight hard to imagine

top seating area as his main concerns. He is hoping the railing can be moved two or three feet closer to the seats to bring it out of sight.

Broda said after those changes are made, more evaluations could take place to see if there are any other issues with viewing the ice.

He acknowledged there is a lot of work involved in making major changes.

"Its an awful lot of concrete," he said.

If the changes are a success, the second ice pad could also be changed.

"Whatever we did to one side, I'm making the suggestion we do it to the second side," he said.

Currently, any action taking place about 10 feet from the boards on the spectator side of the rink is difficult to watch.

"It is pretty obstructive, when you have little boys or girls playing, you don't see them."

Broda isn't blaming anybody for the error.

"They built what they thought was the best at the time, it certainly was a good effort," he said. "There certainly are a lot of good things out there."

But as with any large project involving engineers and consultants, ideas are difficult to imagine until they are built in front of you.

"When you're dealing with engineers or consultants and such, everybody has their idea what the final result will look like."

Broda hopes the changes are made this summer.

"It should be for the season starts," he said. "We built this facility for everyone to use, and we want to make it as good as we can."

President of the Firebirds executive Bernie Shantz agreed that there are many issues with the sight lines.

"The sight lines in the new arena are bad," he said. "If you're sitting anywhere outside of the corners, down towards the bottom, or up top, you can not see the play."

Fans watching a play through the corners along the spectators side must look through three layers of glass, distorting their view.

"I cannot for the life of me understand why this can be an oversight," he said. "If this is a company that has done arena's on numerous occasions, they should know what it takes to watch a good game of hockey."

Shantz said the issue of sight lines was brought up frequently during planning meetings.

"This is something our fans are going to have to live with," he said. "If you can't enjoy the game of hockey, you've just defeated the purpose."

Shantz said lowering or removing the glass from the penalty box would remove much of the issue.

But he feels there would still be issues.

To solve the problems, Shantz said either the seats would need to be raised -- a feat virtually impossible because of how the spectator area is constructed -- or the ice pad itself would need to be raised.

"Moneywise, it's going to cost a fortune," he said. "If somebody had been overseeing it when the thing was built, they should have noticed they couldn't see the ice from the top row."

Removing the glass from the penalty box would not be a safety issue he suggested. Simply lowering the height of the glass would still over the players protection from unruly fans, while still giving them ample space to move around.

"The guy doesn't have to have room to swing his stick," he said.

Another option, he said, would be to move the penality box across the ice, and place it between the two teams benches.

That move would solve another problem in itself, Shantz said.

The Jr. C president has previously expressed concerns over the two benches being so close, afraid that some night a fight may break out between teams.

"There is going to be a war some night," he said. "We enjoy the new arena, we enjoy the facilities, we're just not sure it was hockey people who made some of the decisions."