The Future of Rye Playland!

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I will admit that I have purposely held off on covering every bit of the current Rye Playland story - honestly it has just twisted and turned far too much for me to keep up.

However, there are some bigger changes afoot that are worth noting - mainly that during the first half of this year the support for Sustainable Playland has been chipped away, from the general public to those currently sitting on the board of legislators.

The classic amusement park has already reopened for the 2014 season with business as usual, no new attractions but the county has spent money on repairs such as a new roof for the Ice Palace and boardwalk repairs.

Support for other proposals, especially that from Central Amusement International (which is Zamperla's park-operating arm) are still on the table as well. Sustainable Playland had already picked Central Amusement to run the rides at the park, and with their proven success in Coney Island I would think they might be a forerunner.

While the final plan for the future of Playland is discussed, and eventually voted on this Summer, hopefully plenty of visitors will head out and enjoy the day there. I would love to see a happy ending to this story, but it looks like we will still have to wait a while on that one.
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Update from the next day.

Just yesterday I wrote about how Rye Playland's future was looking to be totally up in the air once again, and apparently my psychic abilities were at their peak just then. Today Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino announced that the deal with Sustainable Playland was off the table, dead in the water, not gonna happen.

So what does that mean for the future of the park? Well things are basically back at square one. The park is still operating, but after years of debate and planning, nothing has really come of it.

This article summarizes the news well, but one thing I am hung up on is what happened to the plans submitted by other amusement operators, including Central Amusement Int or even that crazy Legoland proposal? Are they just going to be ignored at this point?

From the way the story sounds the county will hire a consultant to review the park's operations and make suggestions - the details of which I am not sure - and a for-profit business has taken over operations of the Ice Casino (indoor ice rink).

Sort of a mixed bag with this news - Sustainable's plan seemed like a bad fit for the future of the park, but it is also fairly clear that something needs to happen to the slowly stagnating park.
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