ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) - Hockey is close to returning to First Arena. After former tenant, Mammoth Sports and Entertainment surrendered the arena back to the Chemung County IDA after one year following a notice of termination of its lease agreement, IDA Chairman Mark Margeson says the CCIDA is going to reopen the facility.

Margeson says the IDA has put together a management team that's going to work with the President and Owner of the Federal Prospects Hockey League, Don Kirnan, and they are in the process of finalizing a deal so the arena can be reintroduced to the public and move forward. Margeson added Mammoth Sports and Entertainment is no longer involved and the FPHL team will have a new name.

Margeson spoke with WENY about the future of FPHL, youth, and junior hockey at the arena, and he says he believes the goal of the IDA, the city, and the county is to work together to make this a community facility moving forward and change the way things have been done in the past.

"He (Don Kirnan) is involved with us. He's putting a new team, it'll be the 12th team into the arena" Margeson said. "We are working with him to put a management team together with them so that the IDA is more active in the day-to-day operation and has more control so that we can make sure that things run the right way."

"The youth program I've met with, and they're very excited that they'll have ice to practice on and play" Margeson added. "The junior hockey league will also be active and the professional league will also be active. We have a contract in place, we're going to find a way to accommodate all of the hockey that we possibly can. Also, we're going to expand to additional potential activities, concerts, shows, and things of that nature in the future."

According to Chemung County Executive Christopher Moss in May, MSE had outstanding utility bills on the arena totaling over $200,000. The utility bills are in the name of the CCIDA, though MSE was responsible for paying them. President of MSE, Steve Donner said the CCIDA has failed to repair the arena's HVAC and dehumidification systems, leading to exorbitant utility bills and damages.

"The HVAC concerns were significant, but that's not the main reason for many of the issues," Margeson said. "The arena was left in a very challenging position back a couple of years ago and at that point, a lot of updates needed to be made in the facility. The facility is about 23 years old and the maintenance program on that facility really hadn't been kept up and so the previous tenant did what he could do to keep it going, but the new tenant that moved in, Mammoth Sports, had to put in a lot of time and effort to get things cleaned up of which the IDA did reimburse for a number of the items, and that's a program that's continued to move forward. Our hope is that we get that underway extremely soon."

Margeson was also asked where everything stands with the utility bills and if there will be any legal action against MSE.

"There are some things still going on but the intent of the IDA is to accommodate," Margeson said. "The gas and electric bill needs to be taken care of, and the infrastructure repairs that have gone on during the year that may not have been paid in full will be accommodated as building maintenance issues. So the IDA will be responsible for that."

Margeson says the CCIDA is already in the process of getting the arena ready to be back up and running.

"We're underway right now," he said. There will be meetings tomorrow in fact on the ice plant to get that going again. We have maintenance operations going on, we've started to bring some other additional people on board, and we're working with Don the Owner and President of the league to get the infrastructure put together."