1. THURSDAY AUGUST 11 2016 SINCE 1895
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AN EDITION OF THE
BELLEVILLE NEWS-DEMOCRAT
BND
INDEX
Around Town2A
Our Town 2A
Opinion 4A
Lifestyle 5A
Business 6A
Sports 1B
News 2B
Obituaries 2B
News 3B
Police Blotter4B
BUSINESS
The doors at Tim
Hortons will open
Friday 6A
SPORTS
O’Fallon football
training camp
opens 1B
N
ot only will
McKendree
Metro Rec Plex
be a leader of its
kind in the metro-east
with two NHL-sized ice
rinks, an aquatic center fit
with a 10-lane champion-
ship swimming pool and
recreational pool, but it’s
also using the latest in
cutting edge technology
with it’s implementation
of Eco Chill by a Canadian
company CIMCO. The
project is still on schedule
for its expected comple-
tion in about four months.
“It’s a heat reclamation
system that allows us to
reclaim the byproduct heat
coming from the system
used to keep the ice cool,
and that is normally
wasted, but with Eco Chill
we can recycle that heat in
other needed areas of the
facility,” John Arbeiter,
senior general manager,
said.
In other words, the left
over heat that normally
would dissipate into the
air, will be re-routed to be
used in areas such as the
locker rooms to heat the
water for showers, Kim
Smallheer, general
manager, said.
“It’s very new tech-
nology, and very green
and eco-friendly,” Small-
heer said.
The effect of greeb-
house gases on the envi-
ronment coupled with
current electric and gas
rates are the motivating
concerns for all ice rink
owners and users these
days who are seeking out
less negative impacting
technologies, Arbeiter
said.
One of the rinks will be
a year-round ice rink for
athletes and competitions,
where as the second will
be seasonal, and turned
into an arena for events
like trade shows, concerts,
organization meetings or
public speakers.
“It can be used for con-
certs, trade shows, con-
ventions or any type of
event needing 20,000
square feet of open space.
We will have bleachers on
either side with one side
being retractable under-
neath the top level seating
area overlooking the
space,” Arbeiter said.
“We will be able to put
over 3,000 people here for
a concert venue to see an
up and coming country
star or an aging rocker
who wants to hang on,” he
said.
The vanguard tech-
nology incorporates a
geothermal horizontal
loop piping system under
the adjacent running
track, which will be con-
nected to CIMCO’s Eco
Chill system in a seperate
mechanical room.
“There’s more than 13
miles worth of this plastic,
rubberish piping that gets
laid, and before that they
had to dig about three feet
down for everything to fit
in. Interestingly enough
there’s enough piping that
gets looped back and forth
the whole length of the
rink that one could line a
26.2 mile marathon route
ROBYN L. KIRSCH rkirsch@bnd.com
O’Fallon McKendree Metro Rec Plex general manager Kim Smallheer discusses the progression of the new sport complex at the corner of Hwy 50 and Scott-Troy Road.
Eco Chill: O’Fallon’s McKendree
Rec Plex goes green
BY ROBYN L. KIRSCH
rkirsch@bnd.com
SEE REC PLEX, 3A
O’Fallon’s park and rec-
reation programs spend
almost $3.6 million in an
average year, employ 228
people in an average year,
and attract over 128,000
visitors each year who
spend an estimated $1.6
million because of their use
of O’Fallon’s parks.
That’s according to De-
velopment Strategies’ eco-
nomic impact study on the
city park’s system.
Bob Lewis, principal with
the St. Louis-based firm, on
Monday, presented the
study’s finidings to the
aldermanic Parks and Envi-
ronment Committee.
The study demonstrated
the economic impact of
O’Fallon Parks and Recre-
ation department in the
city, St. Clair County, and
the state.
Lewis said O’Fallon is
one of the major cities of
the region and within St.
Clair County. In fact, na-
tional measures of parks
and recreation expenditures
by local governments place
O’Fallon well above aver-
age, he said.
“It is not difficult to ob-
serve that the quality of life
in O’Fallon and the eco-
nomic progress that it and
its residents have achieved
are immensely supported
by the many superior facil-
ities and activities in O’Fal-
lon’s park facilities and
recreational programs,”
Lewis said.
But it is often difficult to
quantify that full impact, he
said. How, for instance, can
the economic impact of
biking, jogging, or roller-
blading around the parks be
measured?, Lewis said.
“Such pursuits expose
people to nature and exer-
cise which, in turn, help
with their physical and
mental well-being, almost
certainly making them
more productive partici-
O’Fallon parks generate
over $4.7 million for
local economy annually
BY MARK HODAPP
mhodapp@bnd.com
SEE PARK, 3A
It's the end of the line
for pension benefits for
O’Fallon City Council
members.
Members of the council
last week deleted pensions
from the list of benefits
they receive and amended
the city code to reflect the
change.
As of Aug. 1, council
members no longer are
eligible to participate in the
Illinois Municipal Retire-
ment Fund (IMRF).
The final vote came after
none of the 12 City Coun-
cil members present de-
clared that fulfilling the
duties of their office does
not require them to work
at least 1,000 hours a year
— the minimum to be
pension-eligible. Ward 4
Alderman Matt Smallhear
and Ward 7 Alderman
David Cozad were absent
from the meeting, which
lasted only 19 minutes.
The council’s latest
decision impacts only
Ward 5 Alderman Mike
O’Fallon ends city
council pension
participation
Herb Roach
BY MARK HODAPP
mhodapp@bnd.com
SEE IMRF, 3A