SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, Pa. — Roller Roost II Skating Rink in Marlin closed back in April, but now you'll be able to see that the place recently got a whole new paint job on the outside and the inside has been completely renovated.
All of this almost never happened.
"So, Dad bought the building and we joked we were having a COVID closing party one last time," co-owner Becky Hoover said. "Invite all your friends up, invitation-only, and we'll close the Roller Roost. We're done. But you bring three kids during COVID and you read all the Facebook posts and my husband and I just kind of looked at each other, like 'we could really make this work.'"
So, Becky Hoover and the Hoover-Miller family got to work.
Instead of turning this into an office space or a warehouse, which was the original plan, they re-did the popular roller-skating rink that served the Pottsville area for nearly four decades, with the hope that people can start making new memories at what's being re-branded as Roller Roost Sports Arena.
"We have really nothing left in Schuylkill County for the kids," Hoover said. "Being that we have young kids, we knew they could spend a lot of time here and their friends could spend a lot of time here, so we couldn't take that away from them."
"I was never here as a kid either, so I realized how much fun it was when we were here those first five hours and then we found out that we could keep it and I got super excited," Allison Hoover said.
This new chapter for Roller Roost will begin next Friday with a grand opening and of course, COVID-19 restrictions will be followed.
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