Inside The Arena Arena’s Problem-Solver Finds A Way To Fix Anything
The $62 million Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena didn’t come with accessories. That’s Pat Eymont’s job.
As craft specialist for the Arena, he’s welded scrap iron into a fork lift extension that cut the time it takes to remove the plexiglass around the ice rink from five hours to 90 minutes. He’s spent hours cutting insulative homasote boards to exactly cover the ice so that the basketball floor above won’t have any dead ball space. And when staff calls at 7 a.m. on his day off about a broken snow plow, he repaired it, then spent hours driving it around.
“Pat is like having Ben Franklin or Albert Einstein on staff, he can get anything figured out,” says Andy Leitheiser, events supervisor.
Other colleagues called him “Mr. Fixit,” “Mr. Inventory,” “Mr. Problem Solver Whether He Wants To Be or Not.”
“They also call me the Pack Rat, the Scavenger,” the lanky 48-year-old says. “It winds up with me until I find a use for it.”
It was a big move from the old Coliseum’s workshop/cubicle that Eymont shared with the big cats when the circus came to town. Now he’s in charge of the building at 820 W. Mallon, a warehouse that houses his workshop, $15,000 in new tools, and furnishings from the ladies’ lounge at the Coliseum.
“This is the most comfortable chair you’ll ever sit in and they wanted to get rid of them,” Eymont says of the green leather seats.
Managers remind people that the old Coliseum could actually fit completely under the roof of the Arena. The new facility also has so much new equipment, technology and physical features that even with training from manufacturers and advice from architects, problems must constantly be solved in the field, Leitheiser said.
So when new sheetrock is marked by heavy equipment from a show, Eymont repairs it. Tiles cracked by fans are pieced back together. His daily log is so extensive it is filed with the bosses’ copy of the Arena annual report.
“Anything that is built can be destroyed,” he says. And well he knows. The Boone Street Barn he spent more than 20 years of his professional life patching and protecting went down so fast he had to turn away. It was comfortable and the new Arena, he admits, is not yet.
Still, he does now have room for his geraniums. He used to keep them on his front porch at home, but considering the time he spends at the Arena, its probably best there is a place for them here. “Everybody told me I wouldn’t have anything to do (in the new building),” he said with a smile. “I’m busier now than I’ve been in my life.”
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