Council committee wants another option on skating rink

The City Council's Economic Development Committee was briefed today on the troubled (i.e., money-losing) Southern Skates Skating Rink located in South Dallas at 2939 East Ledbetter Road. The committee was given three options on what to do with the facility (1) have the Parks Department continue to operate it, (2) try to find and operator to lease it and hopefully make a profit from it, or (3) sell the building.

Council member Mitchell Ransansky's motion to sell it was met with a passionate, eloquent rebuttal from Dwayne Carraway, who argued that his neighborhood has no movie theaters and this skating rink is the closest thing there is for a community gathering place for the area's youth.

Led by committee chair Ron Natinsky, the committee asked the city staff to come up with a fourth option, something it called a Lease-Operate-Purchase option. It asked the staff to come back to the committee in 90 days, but staff warned that dealing with HUD, which contributed two-thirds of the original funding for the rink, is not something that can be accelerated, so it may take longer than 90 days. Rasansky reluctantly went along with the motion providing the city pay off the first lien on the property.