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PLAYLAND POOL: Parker and Jenkins Tried to SAVE it in 2014

County Executive Rob Astorino wants to close Playland's Pool. Legislators have been trying to save it from him for over two years now...

Deirdre Curran, Neighbor

Posted Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 1:39 pm ET|Updated Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 3:18 pm ET

For the last three and a half years, as I’ve followed the Playland issue closely and watched the continuous bungling of Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s SEVEN-YEARS-LONG attempt to privatize management of the Park - now working off a stale RFP from 2010 that was basically a crap one to begin with - I have seen too much to any longer have any doubts that from the start Astorino walked into office with a plan that he has since steadfastly, intentionally orchestrated in a deliberate and calculating manner every step of the way not to HELP Playland, but to make it fail.

In the summer of 2014 after Astorino’s plan to hand Playland over to the “Sustainable Playland” (SPI) group - a bunch of commercial real estate developers from Rye shrouded in the cloak of an altruistic 501c3 with a warm and fuzzy name- had finally imploded after a long drawn out and icky death, Playland’s fate was again flapping in the wind. At that time there were still two of the three finalists in the RFP process who had plans on the table: Central Amusements and Standard Amusements.

Central Amusements is owned by Zamperla – a decades-long established Amusement Park industry giant and ride manufacturer who have a portfolio of Amusement Park entities that they own and run. Standard Amusements is a hedge fund shell company set up to acquire the deal to run Playland, and the management company they will have actually run the Park is United Parks -a start-up company founded in 2014 with no portfolio of proven success and absolutely no track record. (www.unitedparks.com) Astorino’s office never even entered into talks again with Central Amusements after SPI imploded. He spent the winter talking exclusively to the Hedge Fund guys.

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Before Sustainable Playland had even formally bitten the dust in June of 2014 two Westchester County Legislators tried to do something to help the Park - specifically the Pool: On May 14, 2014 County Legislators Catherine Parker (D) and Ken Jenkins (D) submitted a ‘Memo of Legislation’ to their fellow Board of Legislators members. The Memo was a recommendation to the County Executive to send down a Bond Act to the BOL for approval to cover the cost of design and construction of a new Pool at Playland. In Sept. of 2014, the Board of Legislators approved this recommendation and sent it to the County Executive. Essentially, the Board of Legislators asked the County Executive to restore the Pool. Rather than review the Legislation and follow through on it, Rob Astorino chose to do….absolutely nothing with it. Nothing. He completely ignored it. So…nothing got done.

A year later, in August of 2015, after Astorino had shoved an unbelievably bad contract through the BOL to hand management of Playland in its entirety over to the Hedge Fund, he submitted a request to the BOL for a $9.3 Million Bond Act for full restoration of a County Pool…just not the one at Playland. Instead he requested money for the Pool at Sprain Ridge Park that was in such bad shape it has been closed since either 2010 or 2011 (depending on who you ask). $9.3 Million was asked for by Astorino and approved by the Board of Legislators to fully restore and re-open a Pool that has already sat closed and unused for over half a decade.

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Then, in June of 2016 Astorino finally sent down a Bond Act request to the BOL looking for money for Playland’s Pool. He wants $2.7 Mil to permanently close it, remove it and fill it in citing under-attendance and the prohibitive cost of restoring it. Yes, you read that right. Standard Amusements – the Hedge Fund he’s trying to give the Park to – wants the space to build a catering facility so that they can make a private profit off the space where our PUBLIC SWIMMING POOL currently is.

In July of 2016 the Board of Legislators requested and received a cost estimate for full RESTORATION of the Playland Pool, and it came in at just a little over $9.5 Mil. Pretty much in keeping with the cost estimate and money approved less than a year ago for Sprain Ridge and either in keeping with or well under the amounts spent restoring the OTHER three County owned Pools which have already been completed under a 2006 County Aquatics master plan and which have seen a successful uptick in attendance and revenue once restoration projects were completed (Wilson’s Woods, Tibbetts Brook Park & Saxon Woods).

In the summer of 2015 despite being open for only about 11 weeks (maybe less) and being open only five days a week (closed Mondays and Tuesdays no matter how hot it is out) and only being open approximately six hours a day, Playland’s Pool still managed to attract 27,000 visitors. Given the truncated operating hours that the Pool is available to the Public to use, 27,000 swimmers should not be looked upon as “under-attended” it should be looked at as extraordinarily successful. But Astorino and his spokesman Ned McCormack are still on the news all week telling people nobody goes there and it needs to be closed.

I cannot make this stuff up. Truly.

Parker & Jenkins tried to save that Pool from the County Executive’s reign of terror at Playland back in 2014. Two years later, they’re still trying.

The ONLY plan Astorino has ever really had for Playland is to “Make It Fail”.

CLICK HERE FOR THE JENKINS/PARKER 2014 MEMO OF LEGISLATION TO SAVE THE POOL

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Click here to sign the Petition that includes a directive to save the Pool

Contact Republican Legislator David Gelfarb, who is the current Chair of the Labor, PARKS, Planning & Housing Committee that is set on Monday 7/18/16 to start a review process of the proposal to eliminate Playland’s Pool and let him know how you feel as well as Legislator Catherine Parker who has come out soundly in favor of SAVING the Pool to let her know how you feel.

As you can see from the photo accompanying this piece, back at a Sept. 15, 2014 Commitee meeting Legislator David Gelfarb (R) seconded a vote by Legislator Sheila Marcotte (R) to move this proposed Legislation TO RESTORE THE POOL out of Committee and get it on its way to the CE for consideration. Let's hope that two years later they will show support for keeping and restoring Playland's Pool.

And don’t forget to contact the County Executive’s office and let HIM know how you feel!