Chester considers buying Frozen Ropes

By Frances Ruth Harris
CHESTER — The town of Chester is considering buying the Frozen Ropes sports training center on Old Black Meadow Road.
The center is part of a national franchise founded more than 20 years ago, according to its website.
Chester Supervisor Alex Jamieson told The Chronicle last week that the town board tabled a proposal to borrow $3.2 million to buy Frozen Ropes, including all adjoining land in the Rock Sports Park complex. No contract has yet been signed, he said.
The complex was completed in 2010 to much fanfare. Jamieson said the state environmental review for the town's purchase would be simple, since it had been so recently done.
Why should the town go into the sports training business? Revenue, Jamieson said. The town will reap an extra $300,000 per year, he said, and will not cost local taxpayers a dime.
Jamieson said he wanted the town to have the best parks and recreation facility in the county. He's long boosted this idea. Two years ago, he proposed spending $2 million to build a new town center that would house the town hall, a new senior center, a recreation center, and gymnasium. Also that summer, the town board fired its volunteer Joint Parks and Recreation Commission and appointed Walter Popailo as director of the town's new parks and recreation department.
Popailo's position was made full time in January. Last year he made $36,235.60 in his part-time position, and now makes $55,000.
Town board member Claude Brischoux, a real estate agent, listed the Frozen Ropes property for sale. Because of this conflict of interest, he recused himself from last week's vote on the bond proposal to buy the facility.
It's not clear why a successful franchise would agree to sell its best facility to the government. Frozen Ropes has not returned a call for comment. The Chronicle was informed that the manager was too busy to talk with the paper.
Rock Sports Park won honors for transforming an old mine into a state-of-the-art sports training facility. In 2010 the National Association of State Land Reclamations gave the facility its Outstanding Reclamation Award in the non-coal category.
"The Rock Sports Park is named after the stone into which it was chiseled," said its website. "It was reclaimed from a mine that has long been an eyesore at this entryway to Chester."
It's also not clear why recreation needs to be further expanded in town when another major sports center, Primo Sports, is coming to Chester. Primo received conditional approval in December to build a $10.6 million sports complex on 25 acres at the Chester industrial park on Route 94. It will replace Primo's facility in the Village of Florida, which Primo says they've outgrown.

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