The garrulous landlord of the Culver City Ice Arena was on the line from Fresno late yesterday afternoon.
“Now let me tell you what has transpired,” Mike Karagozian said from inside his law office in his trademark hurried manner.
“I wish they had got hold of me a long time ago.
“You know, it’s always been in the back of my mind that 50, 60 people going to lose their jobs (with the closure of the ice rink). The way the economy is, hey. People are hurting.
“At the 11th hour…do you know Richie Takahashi?”
“I know who he is, but we never have met face-to-face,” the reporter said.
“Basically, he and his wife have been running this rink (with two of their daughters, Shannon and Sami). They, I guess, are even afraid to call me directly. Hell, I don’t know.
“I don’t know what John Jackson (the erstwhile CEO of the Arena) was holding over their heads, maybe threatening to fire them. I don’t know.
Of Barbara Takahashi, Mr. Jackson’s administrative assistant/bookkeeper, a 35-year employee, Mr. Karagozian said:
“I have talked to her over the years. Seems like a nice lady. They wanted to talk to me.
“I get ahold of them last Friday night. They want to run the rink!”
Mrs. Takahashi made that disclosure to a journalist last month.
“We don’t want to sell it,” Mr. Karagozian said. “But for the time being, we would be more than happy to let them run the rink until we see what we are going to do.
“They are going to be a lot better off. They ain’t going to be getting rates on the rent, and this guy was pulling $20, $25,000 a month out of there, this will be history.”
Are you going to reopen the rink? The reporter asks.
“Let me tell you what happened,” Mr. Karagozian said. “So I tell them ‘Look, think it over over the weekend and get back with me and propose something to me. Okay?’
“So they tell me they can do this and they can do that. She wants to repaint the place and all that. That’s fine.
“I said ‘You know we are in the interim here. We have the damned lease with these other guys, okay? We need to step back.’
“They bring it up to 50, 60 people, including themselves. I say ‘Okay. For the time being, you guys, if you think you are capable of doing it, let’s run the rink.’
“I will tell you that I made it real easy on them, if you get my drift.’
“So now, that’s the mode we are in now, for the time being anyway, at least for the next six months. To reopen March 1.”
But even over Mr. Karagozian’s stentorian tones, there came a loud knocking on the door. Lisa Vidra, a member of City Atty. Carol Schwab’s office, and Fire Marshal Mike Bowden informed the landlord perilous ammonia abounded in the arena and needed to be evicted soon. It was, they said, a hazard to public safety.
(See nearby story – “Rink Was Going to Reopen for 6 Months – Until Ammonia Bomnbshell”)
