PLAYLAND: Sign The Petition to Keep Playland Public!

WHY SHOULD YOU SIGN THIS PETITION?

The Westchester County Executive and Westchester County Board of Legislators are poised to get Playland and County Taxpayers stuck in a 30- YEAR contract to privatize management of the Park with a company called Standard Amusements/United Parks. Standard Amusements/United Parks is a small team comprised of three people, two of whom have NO EXPERIENCE AT ALL in the Amusement Park industry (Nick Singer - Hedge Fund Manager and Andy Maniglia - former Deputy Mayor of Yonkers and currently working for Ginsberg Development Companies, a real estate developer) and the third person hasn't worked in the Amusement Park industry in ten years since losing his last job working for Cedar Fair, suing to get it back and losing the law suit (Jack Falfas). Further, this is a start up company with no amusement parks in their portfolio. They only currently operate two parks - both water parks. One is located in Missouri (Hydro Adventures) and was just purchased by United Parks in early 2014, the other is Daytona Lagoon in Florida, just purchased in September of 2015. Essentially, this "Amusement Park Industry Expert" who is supposedly the 'best in the business" has no portfolio at all to demonstrate his new company's ability to take on the massive task of Playland.

This is going to be a disastrous financial deal for Westchester County Taxpayers, who will have to put $30-$60 Million of investment into the Park under this deal to restore all the deteriorating conditions. Standard Amusements will put in $30 Million. Then Standard will recoup their entire investment, under the terms of the contract, and proceed to collect 92.5% of any profits to be made. County Taxpayers will recoup NONE of their far more significant financial contribution and will get paid a paltry $300k A YEAR by Standard for the contract.

This past summer Playland generated well over $10 Million in gross ATTENDANCE revenue (that doesn't count parking lot fees, pool/beach OR concession contracts which were slated to come in at a BASE AMOUNT of over $3.24 Million and which were surely much higher given the great summer the Park had). The money the Park brought in was well over $1 Million ABOVE it's operating budget - which means technically, Playland turned a profit. And it brought in more than $300k EVERY WEEKEND last summer.

This is a terrible deal for County Taxpayers. Now, in a desperate attempt to push this contract through, BOL Chairman Mike Kaplowitz is trying to float a new "30/30" deal where Standard puts in $30 Mil and the County only puts in $30-32 Mil - which means that another $30 Million worth of capital improvements projects the County has CLEARLY IDENTIFIED AS NECESSARY, will get left either completely un-done or done in a manner that cuts corners and does not constitute the full restoration this Historic Landmark Park needs.

This is not only not good for Playland, it's not good for Westchester Taxpayers.

Please read, sign and SHARE this petition with anyone you know who loves Playland.

You can read and sign the petition by clicking on this link:

https://www.change.org/p/westchester-county-executive-robert-p-astorino-keep-rye-playland-public

If you would like to direct others to the online petition, they can also find it at:

www.friendsofplayland.org

FOR FREQUENT UPDATES YOU CAN “LIKE” AND FOLLOW “FRIENDS OF PLAYLAND” ON FaceBook:

https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfPlayland/