, ,

Work Underway To Remove Debris After Hallway Roof Collapses At Brown County Arena

Heavy Snow Causes Roof Collapse At Venue Slated For Demolition

By

Nature got a head start on the planned demolition of the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena in Ashwaubenon last Friday.

The arena isn’t damaged, but heavy snow slid off the arena’s domed roof onto the roof of an adjacent indoor walkway 60 feet below. Later that night more snow fell through the roof of a conference room located in the offices of the Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau nearby the walkway. No one was injured in either collapse.

A snowstorm the previous weekend dropped 2 feet of snow on Green Bay.

Stay informed on the latest news

Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“We basically had an avalanche,” Paul Fontecchio, the county’s public works director, said of the destruction.

Fontecchio said the arena is still useable.

“It is just the connection from the ticket center area to the arena is taken out,” he said.

County officials may have to find an alternate route for people to get from the indoor ticket office to the arena floor. In the meantime, he said his priority is removing debris from inside and then getting the roof temporarily boarded up.

Fontecchio has already met with structural engineers and contacted the county’s insurance agency. He does not know how much the temporary repairs will cost.

He also said it’s up to county leaders to figure out what to do next. The arena was built in 1958 and is across the street from Lambeau Field. Brown County plans to use $15 million from its six-year extra half-cent sales tax to build a new expo center. But that is years off.

“With an aging facility that is planned to be demolished you might be building a roofline to replace what was damaged that is only going to last a year or two,” Fontecchio said. He added that the big question is, “How much do we invest in something that is going to last a year or two?”

Fontecchio said snow has slid off the domed roof in the past, but it was “never something this destructive.”

He said the design process has not begun yet for the expo center but when it does, “if I have anything to say about it, it will have a different roofline.”

When temporary repairs have been completed, Fontecchio said events will continue at the arena. However the “avalanche” has moved the weekend’s planned sauna and hot tub sale south to Appleton.

The snow also caused roof collapses at barns and businesses across the region.