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  • The Jeffersonville Ice Rink, located in the 200 block of Spring Street, saw about 25,000 visitors during its two and a half month run in downtown Jeffersonville. Staff photo by C.E. Branham

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  • Seven-year-old Lily Haire of Jeffersonville glides across the Jeffersonville Ice Rink recently. File photo

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February 13, 2012

Jeffersonville officials say skating rink was a hit

Mayor open to bringing it back later this year

By DAVID A. MANN David.Mann@newsandtribune.com

JEFFERSONVILLE — Jeffersonville’s ice rink brought an estimated 25,000 people downtown during the approximately 2 1/2 months it was set up at the corner of Market and Spring streets.

Among them were about 11,000 paying skaters, said Sara Schutz, assistant superintendent for RiverStage and special events for the Jeffersonville Parks and Recreation Department.

“It definitely exceeded all my expectations,” she said. “The only complaint we heard was that it wasn’t open long enough.”

The rink, which is being disassembled, was rented to the city by Marion-based Ice Rinks 2 Go. A shallow pool of about 3 inches of water was kept frozen by a large, attached chiller. The city paid $75,000 to rent the facility.

There was also a one-time cost of $20,000 to run electricity to the parking lot where the rink sat. Additional costs included signage, decoration and staffing. Schutz estimates the total costs at about $150,000.

Most of that was covered by allocations from the Jeffersonville City Council, the Redevelopment Commission and the Urban Enterprise Zone, which is a special downtown taxing district. Each of those entities put up $33,000, Schutz said.

From a revenue standpoint, the rink brought in about $75,000 from admission fees. For the most part, skaters paid $8 admission — a cost that included rental skates. There was also a group rate, at which groups of 10 or more were charged $6 per person. And the city had several promotional nights that featured discounted admission. Further, the city got a 20 percent cut on all concession sales, but that amount hasn’t been totaled up yet, Schutz said.

Jeffersonville Main Street Inc. and downtown business owners were thrilled, saying it helped bring them business and customers.

“The ice rink was great — we saw a lot of new people that had never been in our restaurant before,”  said Morgan Coomer, part of the third-generation of the family that owns Ann’s by the River restaurant. “Many of the new customers commented that they didn’t realize there were so many shops in downtown Jeffersonville.”

Jill Schimpff, of Schimpff’s Confectionery, said it was favorable as well.

“We thought the ice rink was a wonderful attraction,” she said. “Not only did it bring people to downtown Jeffersonville to skate, but it brought them here to eat and shop.”

Even Riverside Cigar Shop saw a bump.

“We had about 25 dads come over to the shop while their children skated,” said owner Jeff Mouttet.

“We appreciate the city and all its partners for adding this extra sparkle to the heart of our community,” said Claudia Gatewood, owner of Choices Boutique and president of the Downtown Merchants Association.

The ice rink rental was facilitated by Jeffersonville’s former mayor Tom Galligan. Mike Moore, who took office Jan. 1, said he’s open to the idea of bringing it back again, but wants a commitment by the downtown merchants to stay open later.

“I need to sit down and talk with the downtown merchants,” Moore said. “If they’re willing to stay open late, I think those are dollars well spent.”

Moore said having the merchants commit to later business hours ensures that the rink is actually helping spur the local economy.

Main Street Executive Director Jay Ellis said that the proposal was definitely worth considering and he would bring it to upcoming meetings with the merchants.

“Some of the merchants did stay open late,” he said. “Most of the merchants are really looking forward to and hoping the rink will be back.”

By the same token, he said merchants would be interested in expanding some of the promotions that the city had this time.

Tuesdays, for instance, were eat local nights, wherein those who brought a receipt from a local restaurant received a discount on rink admission. Thursday nights were shop local nights.

“Any time you can increase the traffic count the way the rink did it’s beneficial to businesses through immediate sales and by raising customer awareness of businesses for future sales,” Ellis said. “People are already asking about next year.”

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