[img]2396|exact|||no_popup[/img]
City Councilman Mehaul O’Leary is not going quietly on the loss of lease for the skating families who have made the Culver City Ice Arena largely flourish the last 52 years.
For Mr. O’Leary, the termination of the Ice Arena is not necessarily a fait accompli.
“It would worry me,” he said, “if the (scheduled Feb. 2 end-of-lease) change happens, the use gets changed and we go through the irreversible process of turning off the compressors and then we find these results:
“Melting of not only the ice but the permafrost, which could be significant.
“Do we know exactly what is going to happen? What if there are pungent odors that come from years of leaks that we really knew nothing about, but it just seeped into the soil?
“Then the new business realizes, ‘Oh, this is not going to work. What about the smell?’ What’s underneath is prohibitive of … At what stage will the city get involved?” asked Mr. O’Leary, who essayed a slick move at last evening’s Council meeting when he managed to get a discussion of the Ice Arena on the Jan. 27 agenda.
“What if there is a leak of ammonia, a chemical that they have been using for the 52 years? What if it’s a smell of the ammonia that has been hidden by the ice for so long? What do we do then?
“Then we say ‘No, no, no. You can’t operate in these conditions. You have to clean to whatever depth the damage has been done.’ Then the new company says, ‘Forget it. We are pulling out.’
“That,” concluded Mr. O’Leary, “would leave us with a hole in the ground and no business in there.”
