Retro Skate, Fairmont's newest roller skate rink, offers fun for everyone

Oct. 14—FAIRMONT — Fairmont residents now have the opportunity to put on some roller skates and skate around in colorful lights reminiscent of the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Retro Skate, located in the Country Club Shops plaza on Country Club Road, opened to the public on Friday, Oct. 6, after months of vision and planning by its owners.

Lawrence Nelson and Angie Long came up with the idea for Retro Skate after going on a date at the now-closed Skate Away in Bellview and hearing residents of Fairmont reminiscing about the defunct Valley Worlds of Fun. They both love to skate but wanted a better experience than what Skate Away provided not just for themselves but the children of Fairmont too.

"I came down here and saw there really wasn't much for kids to do," Nelson said. "Just came up with the idea after skating at the local rink that has since shut down for repair supposedly, and it wasn't a good experience. I said 'The kids deserve better,' and jumped off the cliff with this."

Nelson, a retired U.S. Army veteran and native of Milford, Connecticut, moved from Pittsburgh to Fairmont and met Long, a native of Parkersburg who moved to Mannington with her husband, who died a few years ago from battling COVID.

The goal for Retro Skate was to create more than just a place to skate — it's a family entertainment center. There are rooms for families to celebrate birthdays in and bounce houses will be available pending approval, according to Long. They chose Fairmont because of its placement between Morgantown and Clarksburg.

The owners left the inside of Retro Skate open between the rink and the bounce houses so parents of young children could see their kids from across the room.

"We left the open space so that parents can come in, and they may have kids over [at the bounce houses], kids over [at the rink]," Long said. "And they feel safe because they can see both sides and see their kids."

Nelson and Long said the bounce houses are for anyone who doesn't want to skate, whether they're too young or need to take a break, but still want to have fun there. Nelson said Retro Skate is for anyone ranging from "one to 101."

The building Retro Skate occupies used to be an old grocery store, and Nelson and Long had to renovate the entire inside from the floor to the ceiling, turning the shades of white and gray into colorful arrays of blue, purple, pink, green, black and red to give it a retro feel.

The two faced numerous challenges renovating the building. Budget constraints meant they had to get creative, so they made benches from old church pews and painted them black to fit in with the rest of the decor. Nelson even turned old cupboards into the service desk where guests can get their skates.

Nelson also built the walls for the birthday rooms and kitchen on his own, using YouTube videos as his instructions.

"None of [the birthday rooms or kitchen] existed," Nelson said. "I don't have any construction experience. Guess what? YouTube. I built everything through here."

And getting the concrete floor ready created setbacks too. The rink at Retro Skate isn't wood, as is typical for skating rinks, but concrete covered in paint and epoxy that interacts with the lights. Long said taking out the old floor and putting in the new took two months instead of the two weeks that they expected, and they couldn't put the carpet down until the floor was finished.

Both Nelson and Long spent what they described countless days at Retro Skate from early morning until midnight trying to put it all together. At times it created a strain in their relationship, but they found the drive to keep going in the desire to bring joy to the community.

But what pushed back the opening from its original date of Oct. 1 to Oct. 6 was the passing of Nelson's mother.

"His mother passed away Labor Day week," Long said. "He had to drive back to Connecticut and spend time with [his family] for a week, and that set us back the week. He came back and said 'Listen, whatever we got to do, we got to get this open.'"

About three months before the opening, Retro Skate announced on Facebook it would be coming to Fairmont. Many people responded and asked if they were hiring, but because they didn't have the money to hire, Nelson and Long could only accept volunteers. The response to volunteering was still very positive.

According to Long and Nelson, so many people asked to volunteer they had to turn some of them away. But of the volunteers they do have, their ranks include a disabled veteran, a college student who already worked a paying job and Long's heart doctor's secretary.

Then came the opening. Friday night didn't have as many people as Nelson and Long expected, but on Saturday, so many people showed up that Retro Skate ran out of skates to give.

"I don't know how it happened, but we made it happen," Long said. "Nobody left that was not able to skate. I even gave up my own personal skates to a girl, she had come with her family, and she's the only one who wasn't skating. I asked her what size and she was like one size down from mine. So I gave her my own personal skates, and she came back and thanked me."

While they don't have an exact number of how many people came to Retro Skate in the first two days, Nelson believes close to 1,000 people came through its doors to skate and have fun. Seeing the strongly positive response from the community confirmed Nelson's suspicions that Fairmont needed more places to have fun.

"It just goes to show that the community is hungry for something," Nelson said. "That's the crazy part. It just confirms my thoughts when I had the vision to open this place is that the community needs something."

Retro Skate hosted its first birthday parties on Saturday. Long came up with the idea that kids who celebrate their birthdays there could leave their hand prints on the walls, and the first hand prints can be seen next to the kitchen.

There are many plans in the works for Retro Skate, including creating a special pass to let people come to Retro Skate but also go to Arcade-O-Mania and LumberjAxe in East Side.

"It's all about businesses working together," Nelson said. "We didn't want to compete with local businesses but rather work together. With all this room in here, I could put axe throwing, an arcade, and everybody would just come here. And I didn't want to do anything like that."

Retro Skate currently uses 18,000 of its 25,000 square feet. Nelson said there are plans to put in more attractions there, but he didn't go into detail as to what those might be, keeping it a surprise.

Nelson and Long did mention they are getting skating partners for first time skaters who need help getting on their feet. Those should be at Retro Skate before the end of the month.

There will also be siding on the rails surrounding the rink, more skates and boxes to hold them and locks for the lockers so people can safely put away their items without having to bring their own locks. Memberships are also in the works at Retro Skate.

At times, the two plan so far ahead they need to bring themselves back to the present task at hand.

"We're so far ahead sometimes we have to back ourselves up and say 'woah, get in the moment now,'" Long said.

Nelson also said there's a chance to see a skating enthusiast who goes by the name Retro Randy. Retro Randy wears a disco-inspired costume and loves to visit Retro Skate. Nelson said he told Retro Randy he could come whenever he likes and the people love skating with him.

Hours and cost of admission can be found on Retro Skate's website, and announcements can be found on their Facebook page.

Reach Colin C. Rhodes at 304-367-2548