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HISTORY OF BUILDING MT. VERNON SKATING RINK (1975-78)by Warren I . Cikins (Mt. Vernon Supervisor u Retired)August 1994When I was f i r s t elected to the Fairfax County Board in aspecial election a t the end of January 1975, I began to makeplans to implement the agenda on which I had run for off ice . Oneof the areas I was especially concerned about was providingwholesome recreation for the children of Mt. Vernon, as well asgiving adults a place to obtain similar enjoyment.My Board predecessor, Herb Harris, had managed to gain voterapproval of a bond referendum for that purpose and the ci t izensof Mt. Vernon had d e m o n s t r a ~ e d in a pol l their preference for askating rink. I must admit I was rather surprised by tha tChoice, but. I was happy to move fortva.cd t.o i m p l e m e n t ~ t ; R e - ' rchoice, especially since I was disturbed by the sight of youngpeople hanging around convenience stores where"at that time theycould purchase alcoholic beverages at age 18. Living in a

favored community didnWt mean that young people wouldn't qetbored easily i f there were not enough attractive opportunitiesfor them to get appealing recreation. And not a l l our youth orall our cit izens for that matter were favored, so economicalathletic fac i l i t ies were a most desirable objective.When I consulted with my Park Authority representative.Glenn Fatzinger, he indicated that there was considerableopposition to a rink both fram private enterprise (a private rinkoperated some distance away) and because the then current highinflat ion was putting the cost of the rink out of reach. Thebond referendum was for $2 million and the existing plans for arink indicated a rising cost to $4 million. I turned to the Mt.

Vernon ci t izenry for support and Bruce Bolstad of Mt. Vernon dida val iant job of organizing an outpouring of dedicated andenthusiastic champions of the cause. Bruce and too many othersthan can be named here rall ied to this cause and demonstratedthat Mt. Vernon did indeed strongly want a skating rink.Bu ... : h e J l ~ , } L ~ L ~ " e I l t . " b i ! ~ Q I : ~ t ~ ~ ~ E a . t : L A U t h o ; t i J : : y 8 . t..ogive f i r s t approval, we were thwarted by the Authority'Sunwillingness to okay a project that might cost twice as much aswas available. My suggestion that we turn to a revenue bond toprovide the additional funds was not accepted, since there was afear that the rink would be a money loser, not a moneymaker.The feasibi l i ty studies that had been prepared were shaky aboutthe economic viabil i ty of the undertaking and the County demandedan at least breakeven projection.I then turned to the then Chairman of the Park Authoritycar l Sell and the Authority Executive Director, Joe Downs, forhelp in finding a way to proceed. I wil l be eternally gratefulfor their constructive response. Together we were able todesign a rink that would come within the $2 million l imit . I am

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2also thankful that Fred Crabtree, a key Member of the AuthorityBoard, took a posit ive view, since i t would have beenunderstandable i f had offered objections.

Among the concessions we made were the abandonment of theexpensive brick facade (which would have been consistent with thenearby l ibrary), dropping the auxil iary rink which would havebeen primarily available to figure skaters, and scrubbing fromthe plan a sizeable community room for regular meetings. Icontinued to ins is t that the rink i t se l f measure up toprofessional standards, which was an important consideration,since la ter enabled the Washington caps, our big league team,to practice a t our rink for many years. And so, on a fourth t ry,we were able to get the Park Authority to the proposal.I t was now sent to the n G ' a r u ~ ~ ; - S U 9 ~ V ~ ~ ~ ~ 4 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ! ~ ~ ' ~ ~ 9 1 ~ ~ ~ v a 1which we a l l knew would not be easy.

The Board of Supervisors was in i t ia l ly opposed to the rinkon several grounds, primarily because i t feared that i t would notbe used adequately to pay i t s way, and secondly because manysupervisors thought such a faci l i ty should be bui l t by privateenterprise. I would have been happy have private enterpriseundertake such an effort , but there were no responses tooutreaches. Joe Downs again perfor-med splendidly, since he wasable to put the best foot forward on the value of such a r ink,even though he had some personal qualms about revenueprojections. I was personally deteDmined to have this rink bui l tto meet out community's vita l needs, and Downs respondedbeautifully to my commitment.

Despite my best efforts . the Board ected the proposalthree times over a number of months, running through the winterand spring of 1976. During this time the country was in a periodof what was ca1led "stagflation", with a si tuation of stagnanteconomic development coupled with serious inf lat ion. The f i r s tBoard vote was 6-3 against me. and in two more t r ies I reached a5-4 opposition s i tuat ion. Throughout a l l this time and l a te r inthe construction of the faci l i ty, many other troubles arose.Many people thought the location of the rink was wrong, proposingit be put deeper in the parkland i t occupied, not realizing thati t was located where i t was because i t was the only place in thepark i t could be bui l t , because of marine clay considerations.Figure skaters objected to a design that showed no windows, sincethey said they would feel inhibited under such conditions. Weadded windows to the design, even though it meant greater cost ,stressing our economic projections. Many architects thought thefacade should be brown i n s t e a ~ white, since they fe l t the 'white would be too noticeable. I sent my staffer , BarbaraRosenfeld, who sided with that view, to see a'building jus t bui l tthat was in similar terrain with brown facade, and she came backreluctantly agreeing with me and the rink designers that Whitewas best. On and on i t went, but we managed to deal with every

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3challenge.

I f inal ly scheduled a fourth try to gain a majority vote tobe held at the end of July 1976. On the second week in July, myfather died after a long i l lness and I went to Boston to makefuneral arrangements. Two weeks later , to the dayo my motherdied quite unexpectedly of a strokeo and I once again went toBoston to arrange a funeral. I t meant I would not even be ableto be present for the vote on approving the rink when it came upfor consideration by the Board on the las t Monday of July. Iasked my dear-friend and colleagueo Joe Alexander, who supportedbuilding the rink, to make the motion and the argument in mystead and he graciously agreed. When I called him that evening,he told me the motion had passed ' ~ 1 ! I hade of courseo beenabsent. and M a r t ~ h a ~ ~ ~ i n o ~ e . r : : } / u n d e r s . t a n d a h l y v o j : , ~ e d : w i . t h ~ h e rconstituents who opposed the rink. While the Board certainly didwhat it thought was proper for the people of Fairfax County, Iwas greatly honored that they had given me this vote ofconfidence under these trying circumstances.

I was s t i l l not out of the woods, of course, since manypeople thought I was building a "white elephant" that nobodywould use. I had dreams of being "ridden out of town on a ra i l . "Given a l l the shaky economic studies and projections, I s t i l l hada strong "qut" feeling that the rink would succeed. I sweatedout a l l the usual problems of construction and the rink wasscheduled to open in Februaryo 1918. When my wife, Sylvia, andtwo sons, Dean and Neil, and I went to the rink ribboncuttingceremonies 0 I was somewhat apprehensive. What a great moment i twas to see hundreds of people who had gathered for the event!The rink was a success from the s tar t and for many, many years Ihave had great pride in driving by the faci l i ty every day.

In July 1994 u I have attended several hockey games at therink. Early on (1918) Bruce Bolstad organized a Mount VernonHockey Clubu and much to my surprise, my sons who had neverskated before, wanted to join that team. Sylvia and I spentcountless hours at that rink and many others (getting to knowmany neighbors and watching our sons play hockey as they grewfrom ages 8 or 10 to high school graduation). They and manyhundreds of other young Mt. vernonites have enjoyed the verywholesome recreation I dreamed about for the County's children.At the same time many adults have received great pleasure incommunity skating. And our figure skaters have made many greatachievements. This Julyu as a young adult (24 years old), my sonNeil i s a member of an a d u l t s ~ h o c k e y leaque and, on July 20 hescored the winning goal for his team! While no one at the rink'a t that time knew that I had any role in i ts creation u i t wasanother great moment. And the completion of the sports complexhas fulfi l led my dream.