Times be a changing. Wetern Playland in El Paso is closing its doors at the end of this week and will finally begin the move to the new location. After years of fighting with the city the owners have had enough. News story from [url]http://www.borderlandnews.com/[/url] +

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Anyway here is the article.

The Western Playland that you, Rene Rodriguez and thousands of El Pasoans grew up with will be dismantled after this weekend, as the 45-year-old amusement park moves from Ascarate Park to Sunland Park.

The 17-mile move will begin next week, after the park shuts down at 8 p.m. Sunday on the final weekend for this summer's season.

"This park is a part of a lot of us," said Rodriguez, who grew up in El Paso but now lives in Austin and works at the University of Texas at Austin. "It has always been that little special place that this city has, and other cities don't. It has sentimental value."

Since 1960, when Western Playland opened with six rides and seven employees, it has been a special part of El Paso and a part of owner Pat Thomson's life. Thomson's grandfather and father opened the park. They expanded several times, but four years ago, it outgrew its current 15-acre site at 6900 Delta.

Negotiations to expand the park with the El Paso County Commissioners Court fell through in 2002, causing Thomson to look for a second home. Three years ago, he signed a contract to move onto a 60-acre site across the parking lot from Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino.

The new Western Playland will open with about 25 rides in the summer of 2006. At Ascarate Park, only the go-carts and a couple of kiddie rides will remain to fulfill a contract that doesn't expire until 2014. All of the major rides will move.

For Rodriguez, and others who grew up with the park, it is the end of an era, even though he acknowledges that the new site may lead to a better park.

"I met most of my best friends there," he said. "It was the place to go. Back then, it was the only source of entertainment for young kids."

In the 1970s, while a student at Bel Air High School, Rodriguez worked at the park, operated the El Bandido and met his future wife, Becky, there. She was a Riverside High School student working in ticket sales.

"My kids have visited Disneyland and Six Flags," he said, "and when I take them to Western Playland, they don't understand the connection I have with the park. They don't see why this park is special."

It is special, Rosa V. Martinez said, because it was a place the entire family could enjoy. It had rides for older kids, such as the Himalaya, and Tea Cups for smaller kids. It had fireworks displays, it had Friday night dances, concerts and company parties. It was the home of "POP," pay one price.

"This is another El Paso thing that is being taken away from us," said Martinez, whose back yard on Ben Swain Street faces Western Playland. "Is everything going to be closed in this city?"

She moved into her home in 1964. She has lived through the ups and downs of Western Playland and Ascarate Park. She lived there when thousands of teenagers would cruise the park on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. She was there when the Gold Nugget opened in 1971 and the El Bandido went up in 1974. She remembers ski boats and a gas station at the lake.

She never minded the noise, traffic and lights. She views the moving of Western Playland as a de facto closing, similar to Dudley Field and Bowie High School, both of which moved.

"I'm going to miss it; my family will miss it," she said. "You cannot replace it."

Thomson will miss the old park, which employed about 130 students each summer and attracted more than 240,000 visitors each year. It also survived a competitive challenge from Magic Landing in the 1980s, after having to compete with Washington Park's amusement rides in the 1970s.

"It's tough to leave here, but the new site is spectacular: The Franklin Mountains are on the north side, and Mount Cristo Rey on the other," Thomson said.

El Paso County officials said they don't know what will become of the Western Playland site and have set their sights instead on the overall future of Ascarate Park, which includes baseball fields, a golf course, an aquatics center and the lake.

Rosemary Neill, director of family and community services and interim director of parks, golf and aquatic for the county, said negotiations are still continuing between the county and the city to see whether the city can take over the park.

For the next year, though, the county will continue to run Ascarate Park, she said.

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