Valley Skating Center sold to York company
Courtesy of Holly Tonini
A group of skaters dance to the song, “Y-M-C-A,” at Valley Skating Center in 2019.
Observer-Reporter
Linda Shoup Miner, owner of Valley Skating Center in Donora, stands in the center of the 30,000-square-foot complex that has been sold to Roll R Way, of York.
Courtesy of Holly Tonini
Youths have been skating at Valley Skating Center in Donora since 1983.
For Linda Shoup Miner, it’s time to move on.
She has sold the skating rink built by her family in Donora in 1983 and is exiting the business her family has been involved with for many years.
The Valley Skating Center at 590 Galiffa Drive in Donora has been sold to Roll ‘R’ Way, a family business based in York. The family owns two other skating centers, one in York and another in Chambersburg.
The last skate at the Valley Skating Center is scheduled for Aug. 27.
“I’m old,” said the soon-to-be 76-year-old with a laugh. “It’s just time to go. You have to stay young to do this. After you get so old, it’s just a little difficult.”
Shoup Miner admitted it has become a little more difficult dealing with the some of the rowdy, youthful folks that have come to the skating center in recent years. It prompted her to make kids come with a parent.
Over the years, Valley Skating Center has been home to a number of prestigious competitions, as well as many fun community events.
“I’ve attended parties down there,” said Don Pavelko, mayor of Donora. “I took my children to parties down there. I took my grandchildren to parties down there. They have been fantastic, and I wish them all of the luck in the world and to have a happy retirement. They did well for Donora.”
The rink was a place where luminaries such as figure skater Tara Lipinski, 1997 U.S. National and World Champion and 1998 Olympic gold medalist, have skated.
“She was a roller skater first as a young girl,” Shoup Miner said. “The year she won the national championship, she skated the Eastern Region qualifiers here.”
The business will remain a skating center with the new ownership expected to reopen sometime in November.
“We’re just going to be opening as a skating rink,” said Frank Quintin, owner of Roll R Way. “We plan on adding other things in the coming years. We have some big, big plans. We plan on blowing the socks off everybody in that town. You’re not going to recognize the place by the time we’re done. It’s going to be something special. We’re going to be the talk of the town.”
Shoup Miner said her offspring was not interested in operating the business after seeing her work seven days a week. She’s happy for the new owners and said it will be a great place for kids.
Her family has been in the skating business for quite some time. She, herself, was a five-time national roller-skating champion. Her sister Marcia also was a national champion.
The family previously owned the former Arena Roller Rink, which was located on Beau Street in Washington.
Her father, Floyd Shoup, better known as “Winnie,” began working at that rink when he was 15 and eventually owned it for 20 years before it was torn down around 1976.
“It was built in the 1900s as a sports arena and ball room,” Shoup Miner said of the Arena Roller Rink. “It became a skating rink in the late ’20s, early ’30s. I lived there until I got married. My mom and dad moved out around the bicentennial. It got torn down during an urban redevelopment project in Washington.”
The family also owned rinks in Canonsburg and Waynesburg before opening Valley Skating Center in Donora.
What a rink it is with a 30,000-square-foot skating center – 130 feet wide, 230 feet long – and a massive skating floor which is 850-by- 185 feet.
“The floor is probably the most fabulous floor in the country,” Shoup Miner said. “It’s hard rock maple and it has what they call a rotunda floor. All of the boards are laid circular in the corners, so you’re on a continuous skating surface.”
She said if she were to replace the floor now the price tag would be $600,000.
Shoup Miner has wanted to sell the rink for a few years. After years of living above the rink in Donora, she moved to Florida six years ago to care for her ailing mother. She plans to continue to live in Florida, but also wants to travel.
But her time in Donora has been quite the ride.
“It’s been fun,” she said. “Every day is different. There are days that you get a crazy parent or a child. But for the most part, the kids are such fun to be around.”