The Millarville Arena rebuild is well underway after the collapse of the roof this past March, with the first phase completed just in time for the Annual Christmas Market.

Lisa Lloyd, Executive Director for the Millarville Racing and Agricultural Society, says the rebuild has been quite the undertaking.

"It was a real challenge to get a new building back up and going. We had to deal with insurance, what kind of building we had, what the new codes are now, because that building was over 30 years old. Having to upgrade and change some of the design and certainly lots of the requirements of the MD and bylaws," she said.

The contractor chosen for the rebuild was able to get phase one completed just in time for the Christmas Market, but Lloyd says there is still plenty of work to be done, to complete the rebuild to code.

She says having something in place before the Christmas Market was crucial to keep the facility operating.

"We weren't certain if we were going to have something back up and in place for our Christmas market. Which was a huge concern from an operations stand point. It's one of the blood veins to keeping our facility operating," said Lloyd.

Lloyd says the next step is to obtain temporary occupancy for the arena portion, so they can get their community groups back into motion, as well as completing indoor washrooms and office spaces.

She says the project's biggest challenge has been funding.

"Our biggest challenge has been money. It's a long road ahead of us, we've got quite a bit of money to raise. We managed with what money we had and what money we could get, and the donations that have come in so far to get this first phase completed," she said.

Lloyd adds they are looking for legacy donors with interest in naming parts of the building and arena, as well as business and corporate donors to assist with the completion of the rebuild, as they still need about a half million dollars.