By PETER HUSSMANN
Skating is in Jerry Lee Chandler's blood. Forty years ago he plopped down his first 50 cents at the Newton roller rink and a bond was formed that remains to this day. That bond, however, appears soon to be broken.
Chandler, who has operated Skate Castle for the last seven years and leased it on his own for about the last two, says this weekend's skating schedule will be the last. Financially, he says, he cannot continue to put his own money into the deteriorating facility just to keep the doors open.
"In the past two months, I've probably put about two grand out of my own pocket just to keep the doors open," Chandler said. "If I could just break even I'd keep it open."
While the business realities are forcing him to make the agonizing decision to end his lease on the facility as of Dec 1, his heart says there isn't anything he wouldn't do to try to keep the 59-year-old skating rink open.
"There's nothing I wouldn't do to keep it open," he said. "If I was rich I would keep it open even if it was losing money. But I can't afford to do that."
Get the Newton native talking about what the skating rink has meant to him since his first trip as a 5-year-old and his eyes light up.
"It's a family out there," he says recalling the influences former operators like John Dungan had on his life and the role he now plays for youth needing some adult direction.
"I grew up out there," Chandler said. "And that probably kept me out of Eldora. Now I see some kids that are in the same boat I was in. There're kids that come out there that just want some adult to talk to them, listen to them. It's not about money. I want to pay back to the kids of the community they way I was treated; like I said without it I'm sure I would have ended up in Eldora."
But the financial realities are stark. Last Friday night's skate drew 17 people, a far cry from the 150 or so that crammed the 20,000 square-foot, original wood floor facility when Chandler was a kid.
"I really tried to make it," Chandler says, almost apologetic of his encounter with the hard realities of economics.
But one last hurrah lies ahead. An overnight skate is scheduled from 6 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday. Regular skating will be held from 6 p.m. to midnight on Saturday with Chandler's last day of operation as proprietor from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
As for the future of Skate Castle, Chandler does not know, only that his lease will end and he'll walk away thankful that he had the opportunity to be a part of the rink's history, its culture and the friendships he's formed during his 40-year association with the Newton institution.
"It's meant a lot," he says with his voice trailing off.
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