originally posted on 2/5/2021 6:59:58 PM
Photo: S. Madonna Horcher. View full-sized image.
Conneaut Lake Park may get a new owner. What that means for the historic park is anyone’s guess at this point, but to understand the possible change, one must fully understand the park’s modern history.
It has been suggested that Conneaut Lake Park (Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania) has nine lives, escaping closures and struggling through financial difficulties on multiple occasions. It may have had even more than nine lives — keeping track is a challenge. The park’s operations have been in a fragile state for three full decades. The decline arguably began when ownership chose to “gate” the park, a move that didn’t last long and wasn’t fitting, given that the park was a community of sorts that included streets, cottages and a lakefront beach.
At the end of the 1992 season, longtime owner Charlie Flynn had most of the rides sold off at auction. Blue Streak, Devil’s Den, The Bug and Dodgem were among the few rides that remained, in addition to those in Kiddieland. This part of a plan to transition the park to an entertainment center and waterpark failed miserably, and the Flynn family sold the park a short time later.
Photo: Jason Hammond. View full-sized image.
With the park under new ownership by a consortium of local businessmen, ACE members took part in a rededication of the park’s Blue Streak on Memorial Day weekend in 1993. Not long after that, the park was closed and did not open for a couple of seasons. Another auction was held — this time it included everything in the park — which surely spelled the end of the storied lakefront institution.
Owners of independent amusement parks from all around the region, neighboring states and beyond were there for the auction, with hopes of acquiring rides and equipment for their facilities. Of this tight-knit group of business owners, not a single one could place the man who was the highest bidder for many of the rides, including the historic, but difficult-to-move, Bug manufactured by Traver Engineering Company in nearby Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
Photo: Tim Baldwin. View full-sized image.
A short time later the picture became clearer once the man was identified as Gary Harris, who subsequently took possession of the property. Harris wasted no time getting the park back in operation, and in fact, for the 1996 season, the park was looking better than it had in years. Everything had a fresh coat of paint, and lots of much-needed work was done on Blue Streak, which reopened on July 4 that season.
By the 1997 season, Harris was on a roll with restoring the park to its former glory. Blue Streak was operating in excellent condition again, including a National Amusement Device train that had been extensively refurbished, complete with working headlights. Several new flat rides were brought in, including the Flying Scooter that remains there today. And if that weren’t enough, he built and opened a zoo in the park that included a tiger and tiger cub.
Harris was convicted of tax evasion in 1997. While this nirvana era of the park was short lived, it was a critically important one in the modern history of the park. Not only did Harris save the park from the auction block and invest heavily in it, making it a full-fledged amusement park again, but prior to any assets being seized or trip to federal prison, he also had the foresight to deed the park to the community as a public trust. This required that it remain accessible to the public — a key element that to this day protects the park from being turned into lakefront condos. While Harris left the park saddled with debt (debt that continues to this day), he also left it as a functional amusement park with serious limitations on how else the property could be used.
For the past 22 years, the park has been in the hands of the public, overseen by numerous iterations of boards of trustees. For the first five or six years of the new millennium, the park was largely overseen by a revolving door of court-appointed custodians, most of whom drew big salaries against the modest park revenues and had little vision for the park. In 2003 and 2004, the park was only able to open thanks to last-minute loans from local car dealerships.
Blue Streak was designated as an ACE Roller Coaster Landmark at Coaster Con XXXIII in 2010.
Photo: S. Madonna Horcher. View full-sized image.
Owing to lack of funds, the park didn’t operate in 2007 and 2008, though its hotel, campground and Beach Club remained open. However, the Dreamland Ballroom burned down. The board of trustees began to take a more hands-on approach. Volunteers helped to maintain the park and fundraise. The park’s rides reopened for the 2009 season, although Blue Streak remained closed as it was still in need of extensive repairs. Conneaut Lake Park was among the official hosts of ACE’s Coaster Con XXXIII in 2010, and attendees spent an afternoon there. Despite Blue Streak not operating, it was formally dedicated as an ACE Roller Coaster Landmark. It reopened at the tail end of the 2010 season and, with the exception of 2020 when the entire park was closed owing to the pandemic, hasn’t missed a summer since, in part thanks to some contributions from the ACE Preservation Fund.
Photo: Ken Riling-Brewton. View full-sized image.
Photo: Howard Gillooly. View full-sized image.
Fire ravaged the revenue-producing Beach Club and another building in 2013. The park’s debt continued to grow, and in 2014, the trustees filed for bankruptcy to avoid a sheriff’s sale of the property. At the same time, an entirely new board of trustees was put in place, and although they retained oversight, the operation of the park and its properties was turned over to the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County (EPACC), the region’s leading economic agency.
EPACC was able to bring some much-needed resources to Conneaut Lake Park. Under its leadership, the park appeared to be on more solid ground than it has in many years. Improvements were made. Splash City, the park’s waterpark, reopened in 2016 for the first time in six years. While some of the debt was paid down, the park remained in bankruptcy.
The EPACC era continues at the park today, but that may be changing soon.
Throughout late January, northwestern Pennsylvania media outlets were buzzing with reports about the likely sale of the park. A stalking horse bidder (an initial bidder on the assets of a bankrupt organization) has made an offer of $1.2 million to purchase the park and all of its assets. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court has approved this, and now, there’s what is technically an auction — not an auction to sell off the assets piece by piece but rather an opportunity for other entities to place a bid on the park and all of its assets. Any new bid would have to begin at $1.3 million and increase in increments of at least $50,000 thereafter and be submitted by February 17.
The stalking horse bidder is Keldon Holdings LLC, based in a Philadelphia suburb. While little to nothing is known about this outfit, it’s been reported that its intent is to keep Conneaut Lake Park operating as an amusement park. It was also reported that the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General indicated that it won’t object to the sale as long as the public access provision remains. Thank you, Gary Harris.
— Bill Linkenheimer, ACE Western Pennsylvania Regional Representative
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