Skating Rink

Skaters will have to glide farther away this winter: The city of Westminster has decided not to open its portable outdoor ice rink."I wanted to put out the announcement now so people won't go buy ice skates," said Ronald J. Schroers, the city's supervisor of recreation.A permanent site for the portable rink will be included in the development of the Dutterer Family Park and should be ready for public use by the 1997-1998 season, he said.Work on the park was delayed so the Baltimore Ravens could use the land for parking during summer training camp at Western Maryland College, said Thomas B. Beyard, Westminster director of planning and public works.

A teenager accused of raping a 12-year-old girl last summer in a Woodlawn skating rink has pleaded guilty to a second-degree sex offense. Kadeem R. Santiful, 18, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in August, but Baltimore County Assistant State's Attorney Stephanie Picard Porter said Tuesday she would ask for a term of seven to 13 years, the range recommended in sentencing guidelines. Two others are accused of taking part in the assault. Tracey W. Hankins, 16, is scheduled to be tried on May 17, while the trial of the eldest of the three, Davon Perry, 25, is to begin on Aug. 16. The two teens were charged as adults, and all three faced counts of first-degree rape, false imprisonment, committing unnatural or perverted acts and 26 other counts in connection with the Aug. 14, 2010, incident at Skateworks, which has since closed.

The Piney Orchard Ice Arena is a very cool place to be on these hot,hot days. Susan Flamino, special events public relations coordinator, has a lot of exciting ideas for the rink.Along with open skate sessions, the rink is available for birthday parties and special skating events as a back-to-school skate, a Halloween skate and a Christmas skate.Some clubs practice and hold games at the rink. The Chesapeake Chiefs, a youth hockey club for children ages 4 to 17, practices at therink and plays in the Capital Beltway Hockey League.

A 24-year man and two unidentified teenagers have been arrested by Baltimore County police and charged in rape of a 12-year old girl last weekend at Skateworks roller rink in Woodlawn. Police said that Davon Perry and the two unidentified teenagers dragged the girl into a storage room, where the rape took place. The victim reported the incident to off-duty police officers who were working as security guards at the rink. Perry, who worked as a volunteer at the rink, was charged with first-degree rape.

Remember when indoor roller-skating was really, really big in the 1970s? When movies such as Rollerball, Roller Boogie and Skatetown U.S.A. were all the rage? Well, indoor roller-skating is still alive and well. There must be something about strapping wheels to your feet that never goes out of style. We checked out local rinks to give you an idea of what's going on today in the world of roller-skating. Most rinks in this area were built in the '70s and '80s, but the newest one, the Wheels Skating Center in Odenton, is only 4 years old, indicating there's still a growth market for the sport.

Many Marylanders may not realize it, but blind people like to skate, and many know how to take to the ice safely. For years, the local affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind has held its annual convention at a hotel in Ocean City that features an ice skating rink, and the blind convention participants enjoy the rink along with other hotel guests without problems. Blind skaters use their canes on the ice, just as when walking, in order to avoid colliding with other skaters and to observe the boundaries of the skating area.

About 500 skaters whirled around the Sportsman's Hall Skating Rink, showing their support for 9-year-old leukemia patient, Jennifer Zile.The evening, dedicated to raising money for Jennifer's medical bills, raised $2,376 in admission and skate rental fees at the party Monday night, said Nadine McCoy, organizer of the event.Another $50 was collected in buckets by the concession stand, shesaid.Fees were donated by Harry Morfoot, owner of the skating rink."He ate the cost of electricity to run the place," McCoy said.

TWO PROBLEMS conspired recently to scuttle any hope that the village of Wilde Lake in Columbia would succeed in securing the time-honored democratic system of one-person, one-vote.One is the virtually impossible task of getting 90 percent of homeowners to support a covenant change, a benchmark required under the system established by Columbia's developer, the Rouse Co.American presidential elections are lucky to turn out two-thirds the number of people who care enough to register to vote.

Stacy Lewis of Pikesville braved yesterday's cold to give her son a birthday present -- ice skating at Rash Field in the Inner Harbor."It's freezing but you have to take the time and the opportunity to expose children to new things," Mrs. Lewis said, quickly lacing her mustard yellow ice skates to catch up with her 6-year-old son, Alexander.L "He loves roller skating but the jury is still out on this."Some 125 skaters -- parents and their children -- crowded the Baltimore On Ice skating rink near the Maryland Science Center yesterday.

The ice skating rink at Quiet Waters Park near Annapolis will not open this winter - and probably won't next year either - because Anne Arundel County officials say it would cost too much to fix the apparatus that freezes the pond. "You can't be laying off ... police and spend $250,000 for coils at an ice rink," county recreation director Dennis M. Callahan said, referring to the 16 police officers who were laid off because of a budget crunch earlier this year. The rink typically opens after Thanksgiving and remains open until March.

A skating rink in Woodlawn that police say consistently causes law enforcement problems has been granted a few more days to come up with a plan that might allow it to remain open for business. The reprieve came from a Baltimore County code enforcement officer, Meg Ferguson, who upheld a decision to revoke Skateworks' license but left the door open for discussions with the facility's owners about how to save the skating rink. The four owners now have until Wednesday to convince county officials of their commitment to avoid disruptions that police say have been caused by large crowds entering or leaving the facility at 1716 Whitehead Road.

Baltimore County will allow a Woodlawn roller skating rink to remain open another week while the county code enforcement officer decides whether to revoke its license. Enforcement officer Meg Ferguson issued the order Thursday to give herself "sufficient time for proper consideration of the evidence and testimony" before deciding the fate of Skateworks, which county officials say is straining police resources, tying up traffic and violating the closing time spelled out on its license by staying open past midnight.

Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps said last night that he is starting a new endeavor involving a pool he and coach Bob Bowman are purchasing in Baltimore. "My goal is to change the sport of swimming," Phelps told NBC's Nightly News anchor Brian Williams in an interview broadcast last night. "Bob and I are starting up a new business back in Baltimore with the pool that we just bought, so we're going to make some adjustments and see what we can do to take that sport to the next level."

Many Marylanders may not realize it, but blind people like to skate, and many know how to take to the ice safely. For years, the local affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind has held its annual convention at a hotel in Ocean City that features an ice skating rink, and the blind convention participants enjoy the rink along with other hotel guests without problems. Blind skaters use their canes on the ice, just as when walking, in order to avoid colliding with other skaters and to observe the boundaries of the skating area.

Staring at the terra cotta facade of the Mayfair Theater, with its graceful female statues and intricate relief work, Sean MacCarthy is amazed it has survived so much turbulence in the century since it went up. The rest of the historic building on Howard Street has not fared nearly as well. The inside was remodeled again and again, the arched windows were filled with masonry, the mosaic floors were torn up. And, in the final indignity, the roof collapsed in 1998, leaving a two-story-high pile of debris that has not been cleared to this day. But more than 20 years after the Mayfair stopped showing movies, MacCarthy sees new life for a theater left for dead.

When Elizabeth Skora invited 14 of her friends to celebrate her 17th birthday recently at the Columbia Ice Rink, she said they were game to bundle up, brave the cold and try their skill at gliding on thin blades. "I used to skate, but I haven't really thought of it for a while," said the Catonsville resident. "We decided to mix it up a little bit." "They were so excited. I didn't think a bunch of teenagers would be excited," she added. In fact, hundreds of Columbia-area middle and high school students eagerly strap on skates and take to the ice Fridays for the weekly 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. sessions that offer blaring pop music (usually provided by a disc jockey)

Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps said last night that he is starting a new endeavor involving a pool he and coach Bob Bowman are purchasing in Baltimore. "My goal is to change the sport of swimming," Phelps told NBC's Nightly News anchor Brian Williams in an interview broadcast last night. "Bob and I are starting up a new business back in Baltimore with the pool that we just bought, so we're going to make some adjustments and see what we can do to take that sport to the next level."

Staring at the terra cotta facade of the Mayfair Theater, with its graceful female statues and intricate relief work, Sean MacCarthy is amazed it has survived so much turbulence in the century since it went up. The rest of the historic building on Howard Street has not fared nearly as well. The inside was remodeled again and again, the arched windows were filled with masonry, the mosaic floors were torn up. And, in the final indignity, the roof collapsed in 1998, leaving a two-story-high pile of debris that has not been cleared to this day. But more than 20 years after the Mayfair stopped showing movies, MacCarthy sees new life for a theater left for dead.

Like a forlorn sentinel from Howard County's past, the decrepit former roller-skating rink and dance school facing U.S. 29 from Columbia Road in Ellicott City witnessed the disappearance of farms and fields. Now, it, along with the 1899 farmhouse next door, will soon be gone, replaced next year with 13 large homes selling for about $900,000 each. Older county residents remember carefree days in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, roller skating and eating homemade pies and sandwiches there in later years.

Work is set to begin later this month on a $400 million redevelopment of a decrepit former strip mall near Annapolis that would transform the 32-acre site into a gateway to the capital city, complete with a tree-lined Main Street, shops, apartments and a skating rink. The proposed Annapolis Towne Centre at Parole - which would be one of the largest private developments in Anne Arundel County - would have more than 600,000 square feet of retail space and 120,000 square feet of office space, according to the plan unveiled this week by Greenberg Commercial Corp.