Street Hockey Rink For Boys & Girls Club, Public To Get Public Hearing

DALE CITY, VA — A new in-line hockey rink could glide its way to Dale City if it secures approval from Prince William County.

On Tuesday, the Board of County Supervisors authorized a public hearing to make a lease amendment allowing an in-line hockey rink to be built at Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington's Hylton Club property, 5070 Dale Boulevard, Woodbridge, VA.

The Hylton Boys & Girls Club has been open since 1991, one year after the Board of County Supervisors first approved a lease agreement for the site. Now, the Washington Capitals have agreed to fund an in-line dry hockey rink — street hockey rink — at an unused part of the athletic field on the Hylton Boys & Girls Club property. Under the proposal, the Prince William Ice Center would operate and maintain the rink.

"A dry hockey rink is basically it's a rollerblading rink for street hockey," said Seth Hendler-Voss, director of Prince William County Parks and Recreation. "It could be used for rollerblading and any other series of wheeled sports."

Prince William County's Parks and Recreation would manage the project and use $350,000 in Neabsco District proffer funds to prepare the site for the rink. A lease amendment would be required to allow the county's parks and recreation to manage the project. The Hylton Boys & Girls Club board of directors has already endorsed the project.

Under the proposed lease amendment, the dry rink would be available to the Prince William Ice Center and general public at times not reserved for the Hylton Boys & Girls Club.

"We are going to, of course, allow the Boys and Girls Club lease to have dedicated access to that rink for their programs, mainly, hopefully in line skating and the benefit of this partnership is that the Ice Center has offered to help conduct those programs to where they're teaching the participants in the Boys & Girls Club how to play hockey and how to skate if they so choose to take advantage of that. And so we're hoping that this project will nurture that relationship, bring it to a whole new level."

Neabsco District Supervisor Victor Angry, whose district the rink would be located in, supported using the proffer funds when he first learned of the proposal.

"I'm excited about this because we continue talking about creating opportunities for our youth, which we clearly have created here through an opportunity created by the Capitals," said Angry. "And so I thank them for this, because listening to RJ [Zeigler], the owner of the ice rink, he grew up in Dale City, used to skate in there as a young kid, and bought the place. He was telling me about, about the partnership that they had with the Boys and Girls Club, and that the kids used to come over and skate in the ice rink, and they would teach them that. And somehow that relationship distanced, and so now we have this opportunity to create it again."

Other supervisors expressed optimism for the proposal.

"This is just another step forward in terms of Prince William County being recognized as a place where entertainment and sports can really and thrive here in the county," added Woodbridge District Supervisor Margaret Franklin.

"I know that Fairfax has a similar facility, and I'm glad that Prince William is able to offer more to our community and to our youth as the best investment we can make," said Chair Deshundra Jefferson. "The best return investment's education, but it's also offering opportunity to our young people."

Hendler-Voss anticipated no operating budget impact other than an estimated $10,000 liability insurance premium increase. That liability insurance would cover public rink users who are not the Boys & Girls Club and Prince William Ice Center users. The county would have to fund rink replacement costs if public demand warrants a new one at the end of the rink's useful life — an estimated 30 years.

The public hearing will be set for January or February 2025.

"Once all of those documents are approved by you all early in 2025, we'll go through the permitting and design process and hopefully break ground in the spring or summer and cut the ribbon in the fall," Hendler-Voss said.