Industry News:

Rink Faces Wrecking Ball
Skaters lament loss of Wisconsin roller rink
By Planet staff
posted Thursday, Dec. 14, 2006

Skaters and school kids in Hartland, Wisc., are lamenting plans for the demolition of their local roller rink.

The Skate World rink is expected to be torn down next summer to make way for a new office building.

Longtime rink owner John Mangold recently sold the rink to an orthodontist with an office nearby.

"Economically, (the rink) was doing fine, I just had a better opportunity and I took it," Mangold told the Lake County Reporter.

The city has approved orthodontist Daniel Holzhauer's plan to demolish the 27-year-old rink and replace it with a 2-story office building.

The rink is home to the 20-member Premier Racing inline speed skating team. Among its members is World Champion Jessica Smith.

"We're not sure what we are going to do," said Heidi Shockley, who manages the team along with her husband, Kevin Shockley. "We might not have a team anymore, which would be a bad thing. We have a lot of kids just starting out and without the rink, they probably won't keep going."

Shockley said she and her husband had hoped to buy the rink themselves but that it was sold before they had a chance to make an offer.

Third-graders at nearby North Lake School sent letters to the editor about the impending loss of Skate World.

"It's so fun to go there and now it's going to be an office building," one of the third-graders wrote. "We have too many office buildings."

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