MORE GOOD NEWS FOR PLAYLAND! CENTRAL & STANDARD BACK IN TALKS WITH BOL

Well, it looks like the Board of Legislators are not going to sit by and just let County Executive Rob Astorino bypass their input regarding Playland’s future.

In June Astorino announced – all on his own – that Sustainable Playland would NOT be getting the contract to run the park and said that instead he planned on spending $80,000 (and yes, you read that correctly, I didn’t put in too many zeros, promise!) of Taxpayer money (or…was that going to have to come out of PLAYLAND’s budget? We’re not clear on that…) to have Dan Biederman come in and do a four month long “evaluation” of the park to let us know everything that is wrong.  $20k a month for four months, nice gig if you can get it.

Of course, since then the CE’s office has thwarted efforts by the BOL to add $200k to Playland’s marketing budget for the rest of this summer to help boost special promotions post-July 4th such as Weds. & Fri. night fireworks and $15 admission on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  The current marketing budget for Playland is at around $500k-$600k – the same amount it has been at for 26 years. The amount given to Playland for advertising has not increased since 1988.  In 2006 the Bullock-Smith Master Plan outlined a need for an increase in marketing budget numbers to $1.8 million. Adding $200k wouldn’t even bring it up to HALF of what it should be…and the County Executive put the kibosh on that. But he can write Dan Biderman a check for $80k to let us know…what? That we need to up the marketing budget? (Because, that's Rocket Science and only Dan Biederman can figure that out...)

Playland itself has continued to spend the summer blowing Astorino & SPI's assertions that it is a place nobody goes to anymore with attendance and revenue numbers drastically increased from last year, even after losing most of the July 4th week - it's highest revenue period of the summer - to the tail end of a hurricane.

This interview with County Board of Legislators Chairman Mike Kaplowitz brings some GOOD NEWS for those of us eager to see positive changes finally happen at the park sooner rather than later, Astorino’s continued nonsense notwithstanding.

Thursday, September 4th, both CENTRAL AMUSEMENTS AND STANDARD AMUSMENTS – the other two finalists in the bidding process along with SPI – are scheduled to come in and meet with the County Legislators about the plans they both still have on the table for management of the park.

Now that SPI is out of the way, let’s see what these two more highly qualified and more financially solid entities have to say.

Read the full story from the RYE DAILY VOICE here and be sure to also watch the video to catch ALL of Mike Kaplowitz’s comments.

RYE DAILY VOICE: "Kaplowitz: Playland's Future Clear as Mud"

Westchester Residents enjoy a reduced fee on rides, and FREE admission if you just want to go into the park to walk around as a "spectator". Tuesday and Thursday nights they offer half price admission for just $15.00  - that gets you on as many rides as many times as you'd like!