The Cavalier daily :: Thursday, May 10, 1973 :: University of Virginia Library

Afton Mountain is a great
place to take a date if you
want to go ice skating, but
next fall you'll be able to save
some gas and skate right here
in Charlottesville.

Virginia Sports, Inc., a
group of local businessmen and
physicians, is building a
beautiful new rink on
Greenbrier Drive, near
Barnaby's and the Jefferson
Town apartments.

Peter Easter, the man most
responsible for the idea, says
that the building will enclose a
regulation 200-foot by 85-foot
rink, a pro shop to sell skates
and other equipment, a snack
bar, locker rooms, and skate
rental facilities.

Mr. Easter plans to have the
rink open to the public seven
days a week year round. The
building is air-conditioned,
dehumidified, and will have
seating for over 500 people.

John D. LeBlanc, Sales and
Promotion Director for the
rink, suggested that the
Richmond Robins and other
AHL teams might use the
facility to practice when the
Richmond Coliseum is
occupied with a conflicting
activity.

A rink similar to the
Charlottesville rink has been
operating in Roanoke, and has
been a great success. New
facilities are being planned in
Lynchburg and Richmond.

Now under construction,
the rink is scheduled to be
completed August 1, although
Mr. Easter adds, "We're three
weeks ahead of schedule. A
firm from Marion, Va. put up
the structural steel and metal
siding in only two and a half
weeks."

Although the outside
structure is nearly finished,
workmen are busy inside the
building grading the rink area
and preparing to lay ten miles
of piping. The one-inch plastic
pipe will carry brine at a
temperature of 14 degrees to
keep the ice frozen.

The brine will be circulated
by huge pumps, and the ice
surface will be maintained by a
fascinating machine called "the
Zamboni". This is a
Volkswagen-powered monster
which will periodically be
brought out to sweep the ice
clean, plane it, wash it, and
then spray a thin film of water
behind the machine to be
frozen as a new surface. The
$18,000 Zamboni should keep
the ice in flawless condition.

The ice itself will be only
three-fourths of an inch thick,
but will be cold enough that
Mr. Easter says the
temperature in the building
might not even reach 70
degrees with the heating
system operating. "That's our
only problem; it's hard to
estimate exactly what the
temperature inside the building
will be."

Technology has advanced
to the point that there are no
genuine innovations in the
rink's construction. "Enough
of these things have been built
now," comments Mr. Easter,
"that certain things are being
incorporated into every rink."

Besides providing ice
skating for the public, Mr.
LeBlanc, the former publicity
director of the Richmond
Robins, would like to see an
ice hockey league formed. He
will be in charge of a hockey
camp to be held August 5
through September 1. Four
one-week sessions are scheduled.
The camp will be primarily for
youngsters between the ages of
8 and 16.

Serving as head coach at the
camp will be Michel
Belhumeur, the goalie for the
Philadelphia Flyers, an NHL
club. The goal of the camp will
be to popularize and
strengthen the fledgling boys'
hockey program in
Charlottesville. Last year, the
kids had to travel to Afton, but
soon they will be able to
practice in the new rink.

Mr. LeBlanc would like to
hire University students to
work and serve as monitors
when the rink is open to the
public. He hopes to build
interest among the fraternities,
and publicize the facility as a
place to go for just plain old
fun.

The long-range goal is to
establish a club hockey team,
and eventually to add the sport
as a varsity competition.
Hockey is catching on quckly
on other campuses around the
country, and especially in the
South.

Also in the works is the
possibility of instruction in
figure skating. All these
activities will take second
priority to open public skating,
however, as Mr. Easter plans to
have the rink open 40-45 hours
a week. No rates or times have
yet been determined.

So, when August heat is
getting you down, the best
place to cool off will probably
be the Charlottesville Ice
Skating Rink.