Brockton council has spent years, and considerable time and effort, debating whether to refurbish or replace the current Walkerton arena, which was constructed in 1972. As of June 23, the debate was over – council has decided to focus on a new build in East Ridge. Council had passed a resolution at the March 6 council meeting to get a costing for refurbishing the aging arena, on the grounds that building a new arena in the East Ridge Business Park would be prohibitively expensive without government grants. When council returned to open session, Mayor Chris Peabody announced that council would vote on a motion by Coun. Hutcheon, long a supporter of the East Ridge site for a new arena, said the report “was exactly what I asked for.”