Skaters face the cold, hard truth

Wee ones teetered tentatively on the slippery ice while rambunctious teens raced for an imaginary finish line as kids celebrated a final skate day at Planet Ice.

The two-rink complex, located on Eden Road off Barker Road in Spokane Valley, closed Saturday after being purchased by a manufacturing company.

Festivities were bittersweet for teams who played games, tossed gross “pies” at coaches and took a few final laps.

“I’m disappointed. I grew up in this rink and I played a lot of hours in this rink,” said Clayton Cardarelli, a 14-year-old hockey player from Coeur d’Alene who attended the event, which included a pizza feed to raise money for a new ice rink.

Bailey Lewis, a 10-year-old from Post Falls, also lamented the closure. “I have a lot of best friends on my hockey team, and I know all the parents basically.”

While many Inland Empire Amateur Hockey Association teams are staying together, their home ice is closing – a victim of crushing debt load and the lack of a buyer willing or able to tackle high overhead coupled with a big mortgage. The association has about 200 youth players and was among several leagues calling Planet Ice home.

Soon cranes will arrive to ready the facility for MoCo Engineering & Fabrication, a small sawmill manufacturing company that purchased the six-year-old rink from AmericanWest Bank for about $1.5 million in November.

The bank ended up with the facility after its previous owner defaulted on nearly $4 million in loans, while competing with Ice World USA, a Liberty Lake ice rink that opened within a few months of Planet Ice and later closed.

Investors in both rinks criticized United Security Bank, which later became AmericanWest Bank, for simultaneously approving both loans. However, the bank kept Planet Ice open for several years after foreclosing, while trying to find a rink operator to buy the facility.

After failing to sell the ice arena to an operator, and racking up about $2 million in losses, the bank started looking at other potential buyers. Erik Humble of MoCo bought the facility but postponed moving into the building, instead leasing it back so skaters and hockey players could wrap up their seasons. Wagstaff Inc., which bought the old MoCo building, also postponed a move.

“It was something that was appreciated by all of us,” said Lorri Smith, a Spokane Valley mom who has an 11-year-old son skating for IEAHA.

Now the association will compete with dozens of other teams for ice time at Riverfront Park Ice Palace, Eagles Ice-A-Rena and KYRO – a Coeur d’Alene nonprofit ice rink that recently reopened after going through a construction phase.

“We will be doing some creative scheduling to get our kids ice. We’ll be getting ice wherever we can find it and whenever we can find it,” said Terry Morrow, the incoming association president and father of two teenage hockey players.

While there were tears, the crowd was also looking to the future and further efforts to raise money to build a new rink. Without debt, the group said, the heavy traffic generated by hockey, figure skating, parties and pubic skates could carry the facility. Businesses have offered to donate cement and rebar, and the group expects that momentum to pick up after the group secures land.

Michelle Lewis, a 36-year-old mother of two from Post Falls, said her sons, ages 10 and 12, will help with fundraising. “We realize it’s going to be a bumpy time skating from rink to rink.” But she said working hard toward a common goal will be a great “life lesson” for her kids.

“It’s a privilege that my kids get to be a part of this. I think it’s going to be one of those big life lessons that they’re going to learn,” Lewis said.

Still, saying goodbye to the home ice and all its memories was tough.

“Losing the rink is pretty sad. We go here a lot so it feels like a second home,” said Billie Reynolds, of Spokane Valley. The 10-year-old female hockey player fondly recalled having more wins than losses in two years of playing at the arena,

Saturday was perhaps hardest on Planet Ice’s general manager, Steve Baker, who helped design the rink and has run it for the past six years.

“The skating community, we’re all like one big family,” Baker said. “I personally know every person in this building. It’s just sad because this is just a big part of my life.”