No Ice Rink In Town Center
Dec 14, 2010 8:36 - 4 Comments
Fabricated ice rink from 2008 photo by Cindy Cotte Griffiths
Don’t plan on skating in Rockville Town Center any time soon. After much delay Federal Realty Investment Trust has indicated an ice skating rink will not be installed this winter.
At last night’s Mayor and Council meeting, Assistant City Manager Jenny Kimball gave everyone the bad news. The engineering for the installation has turned out to be much more complex than anticipated. Tri-State Ice Management, the company which applied to build the rink, will continue to work on it for next year.
Installing an ice rink requires digging up the pavers to install pipes. Of course, there was always the big question of where to store the Zamboni too.
So if you want to ice skate on real ice around Rockville, you will have to do it indoors at the Rockville Ice Arena, or the County rinks at Cabin John or Wheaton. I’ve skated at all three and always enjoy it.
Silver Spring’s new outdoor rink is reportedly set to open by Christmas, according to TBD. So that’s one other option for folks, if the new rink works out as planned.
http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-neighborhoods/2010/12/silver-spring-ice-skating-rink-finally-gets-an-operator-5621.html
Tim, it’s a great suggestion. I started to include the Silver Spring option and then didn’t because it’s been going through the off-again-on-again difficulties as well and there isn’t an opening date yet. When I hear the rink’s open, we’ll give it a glide.
As a Square resident, I have mixed feelings on this one. Bringing folks downtown is always good. But the rink plan, while attractive, calls for a behemoth that would take up almost the entire courtyard area. They never did figure out a good place for the Zamboni. That being said, it would be for just a few months every year.
Sean, I agree. My thoughts about the whole idea are mixed. I am not sure the benefit is really there. But I am not a big ice skater, so I may be biased.