Kiddieland in Trouble

[mcjaco]

This is weird, I was just talking about this yesterday with a friend...

 

Feuding family threatens future of Kiddieland

Rumors of plans to sell amusement park to developers swirl like the tilt-a-whirl as relatives fight for control

 

By Joseph Sjostrom

Tribune staff reporter

Published June 8, 2006

 

 

"I came here as a kid, and I brought my kids here," said Ron Blanchard, 73, of St. Joseph, Mich., on Wednesday, pausing next to the bumper cars at the Kiddieland amusement park in Melrose Park.

 

"Now I'm back with my grandchildren. And my great-grandson."

 

But whether Kiddieland still will be in business for Blanchard's great-great-grandchildren could depend on the outcome of a dispute between members of the family that owns the amusement park and the land it occupies.

 

Both sides accuse the other of wanting to sell the property on the northwest corner of 1st Avenue and North Avenue to developers, and the battle has spilled into the courtroom.

 

Whatever the legal outcome, the lease for Kiddieland, which grew from a simple pony ride in 1929, expires at the end of 2009.

 

On Wednesday, this season's first day of weekday operation, saw plenty of revelers on the Little Dipper roller coaster, the 1925 merry-go-round, the Kiddieland Limited train, the tilt-a-whirl and the dozen other rides, skill contests and food venders. The park also is open on weekends.

 

"It's far out!" said Blanchard's great-grandson, Jordan Blanchard, 10, of Coloma, Mich., about a watery chute on the Pipeline which he rodewith his cousin, Matthew Moore, 10, of Atlanta. "It knocks you from one side to the other, and then you get all wet."

 

The fight over the park is between offspring of its founders, Art and Anne Fritz. On one side is their daughter, Shirley Rynes, and her son Glenn, who control the 17 acres Kiddieland occupies.

 

On the other side are Rynes' other children, Ronald Rynes Jr. and Cathy Norini, who lease the land and own and run the park. They also hold a minority ownership interest in the land, according to lawyers involved in the dispute.

 

Shirley and Glenn Rynes filed suit in 2004 to evict the park from the property, claiming Ronald Rynes and Norini had failed to provide the required annual insurance policy and that the park's fireworks displays were unsafe and prohibited by the lease.

 

Both a Cook County court and the Illinois Appellate Court found insurance was in effect, as required by the lease, and that fireworks were not prohibited by the lease, tossing the eviction suit. Shirley and Glenn Rynes have asked the Appellate Court for a rehearing, according to their lawyer, Alan Sohn.

 

Rumors have swirled in recent years about the family selling the property to developers, but both sides deny that is their plan.

 

Robert Morton, an attorney for Ronald Rynes and Norini, said his clients lack the authority to make any decisions about the property. Ronald Rynes said he and his family want to continue operating Kiddieland.

 

Sohn said Shirley and Glenn Rynes have instructed him to turn down any offer to buy the land. But he couldn't say what would happen to Kiddieland if the eviction suit were successful. And he couldn't say whether his clients would renew Kiddieland's lease.

 

"It's a hypothetical question," Sohn said. "We'd have a vacant property, and [shirley and Glenn] would have to decide what to do.

 

"We're not trying to break the lease so [shirley and Glenn] can sell the property. Their sole intent is to protect their interest and the public from uninsured risks," Sohn said.

 

On Wednesday, Ronald Rynes was patrolling Kiddieland, wearing the earphone from a two-way radio to stay in touch with his 175 employees.

 

"I'd like to continue operating as long as we can, to keep the memories of the past and alive for the future," he said. "I take that as part of our responsibility."

 

Kiddieland also employs his sister, Rynes' wife, brother-in-law and daughter. He said teenagers constitute much of the workforce who operate rides, prepare food and keep the park clean.

 

He started working for his grandfather as a teenager, sweeping litter off Kiddieland's walkways.

 

"It's a first job for a lot of them," he said. "They learn about being polite and responsible, they get a lot of training, supervision and reinforcement."

 

How much longer those jobs will be available is anybody's guess.

 

"It's great for the kids," Mireya Villareal of Bartlett said Wednesday. She said either she or her parents take her 4-year-old daughter to Kiddieland several times each season.

 

"I used to come here when I was little," she said.