County embraces building a private ice rink
by Garry Duffy on Sep. 10, 2008, under Body, Family, LocalSupervisors vote on union issue, name trailhead after Richard E. Genser
The Pima County Board of Supervisors hopes the area will support an ice rink.
An ice-skating facility could be up and running in a year or two, after the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved the concept of a privately owned and operated center on county land Tuesday.
The board voted 5-0 to direct its staff to work with skating and hockey enthusiasts, and private developers, toward bringing a facility with two ice surfaces to the community.
The only private ice rink in the city closed almost two years ago, leaving skating and ice sports fans with little more than the option of long drives to facilities in Phoenix.
One proposed location is 10 county-owned acres near the Sports Park in Marana, 6901 N. Casa Grande Highway.
“We’re a family that comes together,” Ana Henderson, founder of the Tucson Womens’ Hockey Club, told the supervisors.
A new rink and related facilities would be a popular draw in the community, and attract skating and hockey enthusiasts for tournaments, benefiting the regional economy, she said.
“There was a time in Tucson when ice sports thrived,” said Jay Heydt, president of the Tucson Stampede skating organization.
The only ice rink available to the public in the area is at the Tucson Convention Center, Heydt said.
Availability is limited and skaters and hockey players have no locker facilities in which to suit up, he said.
The board agreed to have the county staff work with the interested groups to research the matter.
“This is not a done deal,” board Chairman Richard Elías told the estimated 30 people at the meeting to support the concept.
Other board actions:
• Stripped language from a proposed agreement between the county and the Service Employees International Union that would have allowed Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik and any successors to veto deputies from being represented by the union.
The union won the right to represent the county’s more than 7,000 employees in an election last year. Dupnik had wanted the proposed agreement to contain language requiring permission from the sheriff for deputies to seek representation.
The sheriff’s position was opposed by the Pima County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.
The 400-plus-member group wants the same ability to organize and negotiate as do other county workers, Sgt. Chris Rogers, chairman of the association, told the supervisors.
• The board voted 5-0 to rename a trailhead in the Tucson Mountains after longtime area conservationist Richard E. Genser.
The Starr Pass East Trailhead will be formally dedicated later this year in honor of Genser, a regional and local Sierra Club leader who died in February.
