Rob Kerth is stepping down from his position as the Midtown Business Association’s executive director to focus his attention on a run for a City Council seat in 2012. “It’s like climbing a mountain,” Kerth said Monday of his departure from the MBA. “Once I’ve done what I needed to do, then I need to go find a new mountain.” The Midtown Business Association is a nonprofit organization that started in 1983. According to the MBA website, the goal of the organization is to “improve Midtown Sacramento through public maintenance, marketing, business advocacy and economic development.” Kerth was hired as Executive Director in July 2008. He said in an email that his official last day as execut

Iceland's outdoor skating rink is expected to open Saturday after more than two months of delays. The landmark North Sacramento ice rink was all but destroyed by an arsonist last spring. The Kerth family, now operating Iceland as a nonprofit, and volunteers worked to reopen the rink – without a roof and many other amenities – by the facility's 70th anniversary on Nov. 4. The opening was delayed after family members learned they needed a special permit from the city Planning Commission. The Kerths will open a temporary rink at 1430 Del Paso Blvd. this weekend if city building inspectors approve handicapped-accessible ramps Thursday, said Midtown Business Association Executive Director Rob

Hot-pink neon sparkled once again on Del Paso Boulevard as Iceland celebrated a very special birthday:  seventy years of entertainment, hopes fostered and dreams achieved, and a well-deserved place among the cultural icons of Sacramento. But this birthday bash was much more than cake and candles.  An arsonist reduced the landmark ice rink to charred rubble in March 2010.  The roof caved in; the beautiful glass-brick façade was destroyed—and suddenly Sacramento’s ice skaters were homeless.  Through a heroic volunteer effort, the cleanup began immediately. Generations of skaters and their families, community groups, local businesses, and fans of the annual ice shows pitched in to help. 

     Gary Schiff and Danyelle Petersen, of Schiff’s Estate Sale Building and Schiff's Estate Services, are coordinating the first annual Urban Flea Market on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 from 9am-3pm. After much urban renewal of the Estate Sale Building itself, as well as North Sacramento’s Del Paso Boulevard’s shopping district, the lot next to Schiff’s Building will be temporarily renewed with Antiques, Collectible, Furniture, Arts & Crafts, Unique and Desirable Items of all Kinds. The event benefits the rebuilding of The Iceland Skating Rink on Del Paso Blvd. The Skating Rink was destroyed by an arson fire in March. Through donations they are looking to rebuild by their 70th birthday in N

Rob Kerth has been getting plenty of Zamboni action the last few nights. Midtown Business Association's executive director has been staying up late and going out in the early-morning dark to use the ice groomer to help create an ice-skating rink that opens at 10 a.m. Friday in Midtown. "It's a tremendous amount of work to put up one of these portable rinks," Kerth said Wednesday. "I've been there until 4 in the morning at least five out of the last 10 days." While most business association leaders might not even know how to spell "Zamboni," Kerth not only knows how to drive one, he owns one. And he has the license to drive it. That's because until last year, Kerth owned Ice Unlimited,