HERMITAGE, PA. Owner plans for new rink to be better

Plans call for adding laser tag and other activities in a larger building.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Joe Smith wants to rebuild the Olympic Fun Center bigger and better, once his insurance company makes a final determination of just how big the loss was in the blaze that destroyed the building.
An electrical fire at the Shenango Valley's only roller rink erupted early July 16, and although most of the building appeared to remain intact after the fire was extinguished, the structure is a total loss, Smith said.
"I don't think anything is salvageable anymore," he said this week.
He estimated the loss at $1.3 million to $1.4 million but said his insurance company is still debating the numbers, suggesting that the loss is somewhat less.
The company is saying that some of the brick walls can be saved as well as some of the structural steel, Smith said.
However, he believes the walls are damaged and there is still water in them, both from the firefighting efforts and later rain that came in through the damaged roof.
He estimated the fire reached about 3,000 degrees near where it started in an electrical service panel on the west side, hot enough to cause nearby large steel I-beams to twist and sag.
Other steel support beams were likely severely damaged as well, he said, adding that the city, which condemned the building shortly after the fire, has since told him that any part to be saved would have to be inspected by a structural engineer before being reused.
Smith and his wife, Dawn, bought Olympic Fun Center at 4070 E. State St. five years ago.
Here's the situation
The Smiths, who live in Youngstown, said immediately after the fire that they want to rebuild as quickly as possible.
Smith had hoped to at least be able to set up their newly purchased skate ramps for an outdoor arena in the parking lot, but "We haven't been able to do a thing," he said.
The insurance company didn't want them in the building for the first two weeks while it did its own investigation into the fire, he said.
He had hopes the issue would be resolved two weeks ago, but it didn't happen, he said, noting that he and his wife have been getting numerous inquiries about when Olympic will reopen.
Some are from people who have birthday parties for their kids there every year, he said.
"We do a big volume," Smith said.
January through April is "our biggest time," he said, explaining they average 50 to 60 birthday parties a month.
They regularly draw 400 skaters Wednesday and Friday nights and Saturdays, and school parties are starting up again now, he said.
Smith said the plan is to make the new building larger and to change the interior design, shifting the skate floor to one side to make way for a new laser tag area and other activities.
He said he has a contractor ready to go on the project, once the insurance settlement is resolved, but time is important.
Smith said it will take two months to get the structural steel and three months to erect the building.
"We're five or six months out once they give us the OK to order steel," he said.
Skate racing
Smith, a skate racing champion who grew up in Austintown, is a certified public accountant, but skating remains his first love.
He's a seven-time Ohio speed-skating champion and won national titles in the 1980s before he entered the military. He still races and finished fourth in national competition earlier this year.
Although he's frustrated by delays in getting Olympic rebuilt, he's had time to focus on skating on the Ohio side of the border, recently starting a speed-skating team in Austintown and launching another in Boardman this weekend.
Some of his Pennsylvania skaters are coming over to participate, he said.