It’s time for residents to ‘Think Rink’ again

The Genoveva Chavez Community Center is a Santa Fe success story. Closed down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the GCCC faces a different threat, with hours cut because of massive city budget shortfalls. There’s even discussion about keeping the ice rink closed once the center opens in mid-July — and perhaps permanently.

Before that happens, city leaders and the community need to look for ways to keep the rink. Too much work on the part of hundreds of community members over the years — remember “Think Rink” bumper stickers? — moved the ice rink from dream to reality.

With a projected $100 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year that begins Wednesday — July 1 — we understand why all services have to be up for discussion. It could be that after everything is considered, the ice rink will be a luxury the city can’t afford. But the decision to keep it shuttered has to be a last resort, and turning it into a multipurpose field for soccer and other sports should not be an option.

The pandemic budget crisis is real, but it’s also not going to last forever (we hope). If the city can’t operate the ice rink this year, that should change once gross receipts taxes rebound. Judging from the crowds of tourists in town, it appears spending is happening. The city’s April gross receipts taxes showed a dip of only 19 percent. That added up to $1.6 million less for this month compared to 2019 — a hit, to be sure, but nothing as severe as expected. That could incidate the worst-case budget scenario city officials expect might not come to pass. Still, we know cuts to services, not just reductions in spending, will be coming.

According to city Parks and Recreation Director John Muñoz, the ice rink loses the most money at the Chavez Center — some $336,000 a year, according to five years of data. That’s not sustainable or acceptable. The facility has to be run efficiently, as much as the city needs and wants a full-service recreation center.

However, Muñoz is incorrect in calling an ice rink simply a “neat thing to have in New Mexico,” and something that is perhaps too expensive and costly. Residents of Santa Fe worked for years to persuade the city to open the rink, and part of the promise of the Chavez Center was that it would offer ice skating — an experience as well as a lifelong passion for many — to the young and old of our city.

Santa Fe has long been committed to offering opportunity to its residents, whether world-class opera or chamber music, great art, outdoors experiences and, yes, ice skating. Any user of the center in the early morning hours has had the singular experience of watching hockey players go at it or would-be Olympians practicing their figures in the hours before school. Then there are learn-to-skate programs for enthusiasts of all ages and just the joy of Friday evening skating outings with friends.

The city subsidizes trails, parks and other amenities — and no one expects Franklin E. Miles Park to make a dollar. While the skating rink must not suck the coffers dry, it is an amenity that a city that wants to be among the best in the nation should be able to offer.

There’s also this: Retrofitting an ice rink into an indoor soccer facility won’t really address the needs of the soccer community, which clamors for more expansive outdoor fields through which it can attract largescale tournaments that, yes, would attract visitors and revenue.

We encourage skating enthusiasts to offer their expertise — examine the budget with city officials, see where the money is going and try and figure out why, and how, the rink is awash in red ink. We like the idea of a fund where people could donate money to keep a rink open, one possibility Muñoz said was being considered, showing the city is keeping options open. That means people who want a rink would help pay for it more directly. Corporate and business sponsors, not just for teams, might be a possibility.

In the grand scheme of things, a functional ice rink might not be the most important priority as budget needs are balanced. But the work of Santa Fe residents over decades to make the ice rink possible should not be abandoned, despite the budget crisis. Citizens gathered more than 12,000 signatures on petitions, showed up in droves at council meetings, made the rink an issue in council elections — all to bring the opportunity to ice skate to Santa Fe. It should not be sacrificed to the moment.