Renovations coming to Omni Center

New chiller will cost about $540,000

ONALASKA, Wis. (WKBT) — There likely will be some renovations taking place soon at the Onalaska Omni Center.

Tuesday night, the Parks Board and City Council approved bids for a new chiller system.

The current system is more than 20 years old and not made to handle the current needs.

A new chiller will help lower energy costs and improve the quality of ice in one of the arenas, something Onalaska Parks and Recreation Director Dan Wick said has been a complaint in the past.

“We’ve had a lot of different user groups that use Arena 1 weren’t happy with the ice, kind of soft ice, and by getting a bigger, more efficient system, we should be able to have good ice quality there,” Wick said.

The city budgeted for the new chiller. It will cost nearly $540,000, almost $75,000 under budget.

Work is expected to begin soon with a completion date around the middle of October.