Dwayne LaMontagne and Kathy Ogden have spent a lot of time in the gutter over the last few days ... and the things they found down there have surprised even a couple of veteran keglers like themselves.
“We actually found 19 balls underneath,” said Ogden, one of the owners of the Cochrane Lanes bowling alley. “A loonie, bouncy balls, toy cars, Chapstick, jawbreakers …”
“Coffee creamers,” chimed in worker Dustin Kevend.
“Girls’ (fake) fingernails…,” added bowling lane technician Nelson Joseph, ending the conversation with a host of ‘ews.’
The dirty job was just one of many a crew of contractors have taken on as part of the first major upgrade to Cochrane Lanes since it first opened on Railway Avenue nearly 25 years ago.
Partners Dwayne and Sherri LaMontagne, along with Kathy and Barry Ogden, have run the popular social and sports spot for the last decade. Every year, the bowling alley’s more than 4,000-square-feet eight wooden lanes required a host of repairs, like sanding, board replacements, new varnish and more.
So this summer, the owners decided to replace the aging boards with German-made synthetic lanes – an advancement many alleys have made over the last few years.
“It was just getting time. The wood gets thinner and thinner every time we sand … (it’s) in the neighbourhood of 40 to 50 years old,” said LaMontagne, adding the lanes – one-third of which were made of maple (a more hardy wood to handle the harsh impact of bowling balls) and the remaining of pine – were likely shipped to Cochrane from eastern Canada when the place first opened.
LaMontagne said replacing bowling lanes is complex and precision work, so he called in technician Nelson Joseph of Edmonton’s Peterbauer Bowling – one of only a handful of people in North America to specialize in the job.
“Nelson’s the only one that can touch our lanes,” he said. “It’s pretty specialized. There’s not too many guys that do this any more.”
In his 30-plus years in the business, Joseph has installed lanes as far north as Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, north of the Arctic Circle, and as high as the penthouse suite in the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.
“It’s taken me all over the place,” Joseph said of his unique profession.
Cochrane Lanes has been closed for about a week as Joseph and his crew cover the original lanes, install a new gutter system and hammer down more than 2,000 tiny dowels to complete the work.
The brand new bowling alley will re-open again next week.
LaMontagne said “it’ll be a bit of an adjustment for the bowlers” to get used to the new lanes, but it’s all just part of a continued commitment to keep the throwback centre thriving into the future – something they promised to do when they bought the place 10 years ago.
“Other potential owners wanted to turn it into something else. We just thought it was important for this town to have this kind of facility,” he said.
“I think it’s just a sense of community.”
