Skip to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.
Kings Island Central Forums

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.
Reviews of Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare

Conneaut Lake Status

The Interpreter
in Other Amusement Parks & Industry News

Featured Replies

Sigh.

http://www.meadvilletribune.com/breakingne..._142112941.html

Published May 22, 2007 11:29 am -

CONNEAUT LAKE PARK CLOSED

Conneaut Lake Park will be closed, effective immediately.

The announcement, certain to come as bad news to many local observers, was made this morning following a meeting at the park office. Although an anonymous donor had indicated interest in supporting the park on Monday, the support was to be a loan, not a donation, park officials later learned. However, previous decisions had been made to not accept any more start-up loans for the 115-year-old amusement park.

Leroy Stearns, court-appointed custodian, said he will seek a petition to have the custodian removed from directing any further park operations.

Although previously there were plans for a farewell concert this weekend, that has been canceled, as has the DoWopp Weekend that had been scheduled to start Friday.

All employees have been laid off, park officials said.

Money from a recent token drive will be used to pay bills instead of

as start-up funds for the 2007 season.

Truly sad.

At least they took a shot at reopening it. I know a lot of parks close for good very unceremoniously.

I live near CLP and while it is a sad story for such a quaint family park, it really is not a surprise. For the past 13 years the biggest story of the park has been-"Is it going to open this year?". The park did not open in 1995, and has barely opened the other years. Sometimes the whole park would open, sometimes it was different parts of the park etc. It has actually gotten to the point where most in the Meadville/ Erie/ Grove City area had no idea if the park was open or not.

The park as a whole is $2.5 million in debt, so loans are out of the question.

The area around CLP does not have the population to support the park, and those traveling 50+ miles never knew if it was open, so they would arrange other plans.

  • Author

Not to mention that Waldameer is very close, and is getting a new wood coaster very soon. Geauga Lake isn't that far away, and is also having attendance problems.

Even Kennywood isn't all THAT far away, or Knoebel's, for that matter.

The park will be missed. At one time, Blue Streak was my favorite wooden coaster, back when it ran really smoothly and really fast. There aren't many of Edward Vetel's left. In fact, the only one I can think of is The Lakeside Cyclone in Denver. A different Vetel (Andy, his son) did some of the work on Thunderbolt at Kennywood, ironically enough.

Even though I've never been to Conneaut, I've been keeping track of it, hoping that it will stay open long enough for me to visit, but I guess it's just not meant to be. I don't know, after hearing about this, I just kind of felt empty. Being a wooden coaster person, of course I wonder what this will do to Blue; I doubt anybody can move her let alone keep her open, so what to do and where to go from here? I just hope she doesn't rot or something.

A side note to self: Immortalization, commence now. We've got a beauty to keep.

  • 2 weeks later...

The link for a new coaster for Waldameer is blank and you have to subscribe to things in order to get to the info can you post a copy of it on the site for us to read. Thanks

One more ride on Blue Streak would make my summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Author

And their Tumblebug, which they had reopened. And Devil's Den, one of two surviving haunted house rides like it (the other is at Camden Park in Huntington, WV).

Did I mention the place had great pizza?

But, more importantly, the trains on Blue Streak were glorious things. An old NAD and a train, previously called 'the oiler,' with leather horse bridle restraints and fixed lap bars.

Don't mention the pizza.........Don't mention the pizza.........Don't mention the pizza..........You mentiond the PIZZA!!!!!!!!!! Now what am I going to do if they don't re-open the park? Starve that is what I will do STARVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Author

(Believe it or not, Cedar Point's pizza at Chuckwagon (and ONLY at Chuckwagon) is close...not near as good, but close. And Dorney Park also has great pizza. And people think because I can't find much good to say about Kings Island's food service, that I can't say nice things about Cedar Fair's food service. I can, when it is deserved).

Here's hoping, Monroe, that you and I can meet up at an open Conneaut Lake this summer. I'll buy the pizza! Right after we ride the Blue Streak.

I also forgot to mention their wonderful fresh cut fries!

It would have to be before July 25, I'm over seas after that for 3 months. Also I found this park when I was playing golf right next to the park back in 1976. Man what a find it was, the best atmosphere of a small park I had ever been to. I must have spent $150 in about 4 hours. Of course I paid for all 8 of us.

  • 5 weeks later...

Yeah, it really is not a surprise that Prischak wants to take back his rides.

He has a small fortune invested into Lake Erie Speedway, but the outcome has not been exactly lucrative. He really needs to draw more families to LES.

And quite honestly, there is really no reason he shouldn't take them back. A moved ride is better than SBNO. At this point, it would take a small miracle for CLP to open ever again.

Sad, but true.

A moved ride is better than SBNO. At this point, it would take a small miracle for CLP to open ever again.

Sad, but true.

SOB is moving?

  • Author
Don't make up rumors that SOB is moving if you don't have any facts to back it up.

Irony is totally lost on that one....

  • 4 weeks later...

This is a sad story.

But if the community is not willing to try and save the park by being patrons, why give more money to it?

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl...8140362/-1/NEWS

CLP board gets help from county

BY JIM MARTIN

jim.martin@timesnews.com [more details]

Published: August 14. 2007 6:00AM

MEADVILLE -- The Blue Streak is parked in its station. The carved wooden horses of the merry-go-round await riders in the dim light of the carousel.

But even now -- with most of the publicly owned facility shut down for the summer -- Conneaut Lake Park is racking up bills to the tune of about $1,000 a day.

Members of the park's newly appointed board of directors, along with the park-loving public, got a taste of hope Aug. 3 when park managers reopened the Beach Club.

The news brought a line of people waiting to buy french fries, and it brought renewed hopes that revenue might begin to trickle in that would allow for the park to resume full operation.

But despite a good first couple of weeks, the revenue is a comparative trickle, the flow of invoices a gusher.

Board members Jim Collins and Carol West appeared Monday before the Crawford County Redevelopment Authority to ask for $35,000 to help pay some bills, including a $10,000 insurance payment and about $8,000 on a $236,000 electric bill.

Payment is needed this week to ensure the lights stay on at the Beach Club and that the park has the liability insurance it needs to operate.

After 90 minutes of questions by the redevelopment board, the park board members walked out with a check for $25,000 and some specific instructions on how to spend it.

Mark Nickerson of the Redevelopment Authority joined the unanimous 3-0 vote to grant the park $25,000. But like fellow board members Joe Shrader and C.J. Tisi, he wanted to be certain it would do some good.

"I'm very supportive of the park," Nickerson said. "But I'm trying to get some certainty that the money won't go away without some result."

No one was even hinting that Conneaut Lake Park's board would intentionally waste the money.

It was easy to see, however, that the money could get lost in the shuffle at a park with $2.7 million in unpaid bills.

Collins, an accountant, said he's also concerned about the matter of taxes. The park still hasn't filed returns for 2005 or 2006.

Despite all those challenges, both West and Collins still see potential and said they're eager to see the park adopt a workable business plan that will put the operation back on track.

In the meantime, though, the park continues to face stacks of bills equal to about $1,000 a day, simply to keep the lights on and a handful of employees on the job.

West said the park board's next goal is to reopen Hotel Conneaut in time to honor more than 200 reservations that have been made. That could also help the park generate the money it needs to survive another winter.

JIM MARTIN can be reached at (814) 724-6397, 870-1668 or by e-mail.

Crawford County Planning Director Jack Lynch said he credits the group with both vision and a realistic approach to the problems they face.

"This group realizes they are up against it," he said. "It's hard to write a poem when you're being chased up a hill by dogs."

JIM MARTIN can be reached at (814) 724-6397, 870-1668 or by e-mail.

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment
Go to topic listing

Recently Browsing 0

  • No registered users viewing this page.
Background Picker

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications
Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.