News: County looks to buy rides at Rye Playland

Posted at 8:42 AM EST (1342 GMT)

Feb. 15th, 2007 -- Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano is proposing to spend $6 million to buy eight rides at the county's Playland Amusement Park in Rye that are owned by outside vendors.

Spano called the plan, just submitted to the county Board of Legislators, "the initial and crucial step in turning negative flow of tax levy dollars into revenue-generating operations at the park."

A study in July recommended the changes in order to help Playland move closer to a day when the park will pay for itself.

The county staffs and maintains the rides in question, but in seven of the eight cases, shares revenue with the owners. The other ride is leased outright, Parks Commissioner Joseph Stout said.

According to figures supplied by Spano, the county would earn $4.3 million from the rides over the next 15 years if the terms of the current arrangements are carried forward, but $15.6 million if the county buys them. That is an average of more than $750,000 in additional revenue for the park yearly, cutting the county's tax support by one-fifth, he said.

The rides include Crazy Mouse, Super Flight and Kite Flyer, which are under a revenue-sharing agreement with Fitraco, a Dutch bank. Another, the Playland Plunge, is leased from that company. Four others - Catch a Wave, Double Shot, Fun Slide and Kiddyland's Jungle Jammin' - are run under a revenue-sharing agreement with the company Rides Plus, which Stout said was in the amusement park ride-leasing business.

The county is also looking to make several general improvements to the park as well.  These would include (if passed by the county), a fun card system that would let patrons buy food with prepaid cards.  Another would be rehabilitation of the decaying bathhouse, which could be converted into a children’s museum.

There have been mixed reactions from government officials.  The decisions will be made sometime in the near future.

Another nine major rides are owned and operated by outside concessionaires. The county is weighing whether to buy those, but would need to add staff and take on other costs to run those rides, Stout said.

A 10th, a swing ride called the Dream Machine (wave swinger), is being discontinued, officials said.

For more information visit The Journal News.