Few chances remain to enjoy four wheels on wood in the Twin Cities. The 50-year-old rink known as Skate N Place will close for good April 2.
Skate N Place sat on the market for more than 900 days. It finally sold, but will cease to operate as a skating rink. Owners Tim and Diane Overholser announced the closure on Facebook, saying the spot on Morris Avenue in Bloomington will eventually become a warehouse.
It is the end of an era for area skaters.
Paula Short, of Normal (who wears light-up cheetah print skates) has skated for 50 years, and taught her daughter and granddaughter how to skate. Short even skated with co-owner Tim Overholser, “back in the day,” as she put it.
“I lived in this rink,” she said, noting that Bloomington-Normal once supported three skating rinks. “This is what I did my whole entire childhood through teenage years. It kept me out of trouble.”
Trinity Coleman, 21, of Bloomington, comes to Skate N Place every weekend. She started skating about 10 years ago.
“I keep coming to skating because it’s a lifestyle,” she said. “I’ve done it since I was little. I learned a lot from a lot of people I’m close with. Like, I have a skate family.”
Local skaters plan to form a Facebook group to organize carpools to other rinks. They thought the closest one was in Danville.
It is that loyal following that motivated Tim and Diane Overholser to buy Skate N Place after a brief closure when the rink went belly up in 2014. The husband-and-wife team met at the rink and perhaps took it up as an obligation to keep skating alive in the Twin Cities. With full-time jobs on top of the rink, they relaunched under the moniker “Skate N Place: A New Beginning,” but didn’t touch the facility’s retro interior.
The rink was open just three days a week; pandemic closures and the fading popularity of skating likely contributed to the end of Skate N Place.
Tim and Diane Overholser declined to be interviewed for this story. In a brief conversation, Diane Overholser said they made a deal with the new owners to stay open this month “for our skaters.”
“It’s sad that kids are not going to know what this is anymore,” said Short. “Maybe some day someone will bring another rink back in this town. If not, hey kids, get your skates on and get in the streets.”
Skate N Place’s last skate will be April 2, with select skating hours Thursdays through Sundays. For up-to-date information about the rink’s remaining days, visit the Skate N Place Facebook page.
