The attorney for the darkened Culver City Ice Arena and for the rink’s next operator told the newspaper Sunday night that negotiations with City Hall are continuing toward an outcome that ultimately seeks to restore the arena to a fulltime skating enterprise.
“It is not a question of working toward a settlement,” said Nadine Lewis. “It is a question of this: We all know there are certain things that need to be done. We are not disputing that.
“Then it’s just, who is going to do it? Who is going to do the repairs for us? Who will get the permits and do all of that?
“Nothing bad is happening now,” Ms. Lewis said. “We are working within the system to correct the problems and open up so that the rink is safe by code, by reality and by perception.”
The Ice Arena has been closed since Sunday, Feb. 2, when the lease of the most recent operator, John Jackson, expired.
Next Saturday was the original tentative re-opening date set by the Takahashi family, the designated new operators of the Ice Arena before two assessment companies recently found the 52-year-old code short of acceptable conditions — although that analysis represented a change of heart by one company, Bill Clements’s Complete Thermal Services of Orange County.
No new date for reopening has been set.
When Ms. Lewis last week asked companies to file bids to execute the required repairs, Mr. Clements sought to be the chosen firm.
In yet another unexpected term, Mr. Clements cc’d a copy of his bid to upgrade the Ice Arena to City Hall, regarded as an odd twist by some parties. Because Mr. Clements has declined to talk to the newspaper, speculation is he may have done this to keep another of his clients, City Hall, informed of his activities. Mr. Clements, who has given the Ice Arena a red light and a green light within days of each other, earlier as retained as a consultant/expert on the rink matter by City Manager John Nachbar.
