Conneaut Lake Park TR: 5/17/08 - End of an era?

[milst1]

I guess the lesson is: Support your struggling local amusement park!

 

Yeah, I agree...but unfortunately, I am just as guilty as most people of supporting the bigger/faster corporate parks in wanting to ride all of the latest and greatest thrill rides. I had forgotten mostly about this little park until I read about the Ballroom fire in February on this very site.

 

Even though I might never get to ride Blue Streak, I have done a bit better to try and support the smaller parks. I usually hit up Waldameer at least once or twice a year and plan to get to Martin's Fantasy Island, Darien Lake, and hopefully Sea Breeze in Rochester this summer.

 

You do what you can, right? I've been to Coney Island twice, up to Rye Playland, and also Gilroy Gardens and Santa Cruz Boardwalk this year already. We'll try to hit Clementon and some Jersey shore parks and Quassy this summer. And Adventureland on Long Island. And we're going to HW and BB this weekend and Alabama Adventure over July 4th.

 

Peace,

 

Martin

[Wanda Ramaley]

I wish that someone with a lot of money and a taste for the past would buy places like this and do their best to restore them. I hate to see this place torn down and turned into condos...that would be a shame. I checked out a bunch of websites and looked at lots of pictures of this park back in it's hey-day. It is just so unusual to see a park located literally in the middle of a community like that! Really cool!

 

That is another problem also. The park is a public trust, it cannot be sold without dissolving it. Quite a few locals to that area have called or that, though. The other issue is that I don't know if anyone would have the money to buy and run it correctly. The park is 3 million in debt from what I heard. The last person to own it before it was a public trust got into IRS trouble and that is why it is a public trust.

 

It is often erroneously reported, which creates and perpetuates the incorrect and erroneous perception that the Park is a public or even a charitable trust. However the documented facts are that the Park is not a public or charitable trust. The Park is a non-profit privately-owned duly incorporated entity soled owned and controlled by an unpaid volunteer board of directors. and is required to operate in part "in trust" by the deed restrictions stated in its Article of Incorporation; and as stated in the deed restriction, if the board of directors is dissolved, all assets of the Park are to be turned over to a non-profit entity which is required to continue to operate the Park in the same manner. Currently the Park is approximately $3.2 million dollars in debt, and according to published reports growing at the rate of approximately $1,000 a day. The current board of directors is working to develop options to get the as much of the neglected for decades facility operating as much as possible; however, the rides are not operating for the second season in a row due to the lack of adequate cash flow.

[FlyingScooter]

Great Pics!

 

We went there about a month ago to check it out.

i wanted to cry. (no flyingscooters this year either...)

 

That whole area seemed off to us. We ate at Mama Bears and talked to those working there. They're weren't pleased about the park one bit. I can't imagine the motel owners are pleased at all.

[jimmyt]

that building in question is the old fire dept. I believe at one time Park employees lived upstairs in dorm style rooms. And don't believe the poster named Wanda Ramaley (it's not her, and whoever posted that should not be permitted to sign on using someone elses real name). The Park is indeed a public trust, or charitable trust, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. It goes beyond the deed, the Crawford County courts heard the case, and it was declared a trust by Judge Gordon Miller....

[Wanda Ramaley]

Ah the perpetuation of the incorrect perception that CLP is a public or charitable trust by those folks who want to believe CLP “belongs to the people” and that they “own” CLP. Public and charitable trusts are required to be registered as a trust based organization in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and subject to Commonwealth law controlling the operation of a trust and the poster is clearly at a complete loss to identify anywhere in the Commonwealth where CLP is registered as a public or charitable trust because that registration does not exist. Judge Miller did not declare CLP a public or charitable trust as stated because that is clearly beyond the scope of the courts because a party must take a case to the court for the court to issue a ruling. No request has ever been presented to any court to change CLP from a state registered privately owned nonprofit corporation into a public or charitable trust. Judge Miller presided over a park asset ownership dispute with the previous now incarcerated park owner that was presented to the court by the park board and in his ruling the judge agreed with and validated the CLP Articles of Incorporation which directs that CLP is to be operated by a board of directors “in trust” and only “in part” for the benefit of general public or community which is a night and day difference from a public or state law controlled charitable trust based organization most significantly in the area as the per the CLP deed the park board of directors is the party that decides the rules and regulations how the park will benefit the public and community and can change those rules as they see fit. The attorney general has defended the "in trust" directive restrictions identified in the CLP Articles of Incorporation in follow on court matters relating to CLP as opposed. People who want to believe in the falsehood that CLP is a public or charitable trust or that the park is owned by the public do so at their own ignorance and are deserving their continued frustration. The current CLP management is working moving on with what little they have been dealt through no fault of their own and those people who try and perpetuate falsehoods remain emotionally anchored in the now nonexistent past.

[verticalzero]

If the "Blue Streak" is a rated "old" woodie, why is there no interest from other parks to save it..

 

The best thing for the park to do, is to die and auction off the rides, the "Blue Streak", "Tumble Bug" and " Devil's Den" can be bought by another park.

 

But I can honestly say the above rides will stand SBNO for years before they are razed to make way for flats n houses. Such a shame...