Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
All dressed up and nowhere to go - the Northern Lakes Skating Association is set for the season except for one vital detail: it has no building.
The association recently announced that Glenbrook Mall in Fort Wayne, which closed its skating rink, had donated all of its ice skating equipment. Brian Smith, spokesman for the NLSA, said Glenbrook donated the chiller, the Zamboni ice machine, more than 400 pairs of skates, and all the peripheral equipment.
Problem is, the NLSA has nowhere to use its free equipment.
Renewal of the association's lease of the Quonset hut in Winona Lake was denied in June, and the town is going ahead with plans to transform the Quonset hut into a town hall.
The NLSA had leased the Winona Lake building for the past two years, and association members had invested many hours in cleaning up the inside of the Quonset hut and building a rink.
Before that, the association used the 4-H Llama Barn at the county fairgrounds, but that building was torn down two years ago.
"Now that we've got all the right kind of equipment, we can start beating the bushes for funding for a building," Smith said.
He said association officers have met with the Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department, and have offered to donate the Glenbrook equipment in ex-change for a facility.
Jon Garber, Warsaw's park department superintendent, said today, "I think there is a need in the community for ice skating in the winter months."
However, any decision on facilities would need to be made by the park board, Garber said.
The equipment that Glenbrook donated, Smith said, is about 20 years old, but was meticulously maintained on a daily basis.
"It's big enough to do an Olympic-size rink in the middle of July in downtown Warsaw," he said.
Ironically, part of the reason the club was denied an extension on its Winona Lake lease was because it did not have a chiller to guarantee a frozen rink, and the NLSA's activities were dependent on the weather.
Smith said Glenbrook chose the NLSA from all the applications for the donation because of the complete package of information the NLSA submitted.
He also said, "In our region, there is not any other group that does a rink like what we tried to do for the past three years."
Members of the group, along with Glenbrook personnel, are in the process of removing the equipment from the mall and moving it to Warsaw. Smith said it will be stored in a locked facility until a building can be found.
