By Jane Smith
4/25/07 — Conneaut Lake Park officials have come up with a new plan to raise the $300,000 they need to open the park this year: The sale of 60,000 commemorative tokens at $5 apiece.
The token will give the purchaser more than a brass memento. It can be exchanged any weekday the park is open for a wristband giving the holder the right to ride the amusement park’s rides all day.
This will be a savings of between $3.95 and $8.95. Children’s rides on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are $8.95 and adults, $13.95.
Announcing the sale at a press conference at the park Tuesday, court-appointed overseer LeRoy Stearns and director of operations George Deshner said they are hopeful people will get behind the idea.
The park had hoped to sell 3.3 acres of land at the park to Gregory Sutterlin to help pay down the debt and give the park the money it needs to open. That plan fizzled Monday when Crawford County Court of Common Pleas Judge Anthony Vardaro decided against the land sale, offering seven objections. Because it’s a charitable trust operating under court supervision, the park must get court approval for moves like selling land.
Stearns noted the judge “never said we can’t raise the money to open.”
If for some reason the park doesn’t open, the tokens would be a collectible item, said Deshner, who came up with the idea.
“We have got bags and bags and bags of gold-colored tokens,” he said.
The tokens were made in the 1990s and have a “Liberty Token” engraved on one side with a logo of Conneaut Lake Park. On the back is a tribute, “In memory of Don Guckert,” a former park employee who died in 1996.
It will only take the sale of 60,000 of them over the next three weeks to give the park the full $300,000 needed to open by Memorial Day Weekend.
The token, which is 70 percent copper and 30 percent brass, is worth 36 cents, Deshner said. But it may become a lot more valuable to the community — if 60,000 can be sold to open the park for another year.
“Let’s show the judge we can open this year,” said Stearns. He also suggested businesses may want to purchase the tokens in bulk to give to employees.
Tokens can be purchased at the park office or at the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau, by calling the park office. or by ordering at www.conneautlakepark.com. A $1 service fee will be charged for mailing orders.
Any business wishing to sell tokens on behalf of the park may call Deshner at 382-5115.
Get your token
Tokens can be purchased at the Conneaut Lake Park office or at the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau, by calling the park office, or by ordering at www.conneautlakepark.com. A $1 service fee will be charged for mail orders.
