12/05/08 — SUMMIT TOWNSHIP — Summit Township’s planned sale of a $152,000 debt it’s owed by Conneaut Lake Park may end up forcing the amusement park to sell some of its assets — including land that could then be cleared for development.

“We’re not happy about it,” said Jack Moyers, chairman of the Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park, which currently owns the park. “Press on (with work for the good of Conneaut Lake Park) is all we can do at this point,” as the difficult situation continues to unfold. He was especially perplexed noting that plans were shaping up on important lease agreements in the 116-year-old amusement park.

Township supervisors are planning to sell a judgment that Summit has against Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park for unpaid amusement taxes from 1996 and 1997 when the park was owned by Property on the Lake Inc. The judgment was awarded by Crawford County Court in 1998. A legal advertisement by Summit Township was published this week saying the township is seeking a buyer for the judgment.

Property on the Lake Inc. deeded the amusement park over to Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park, a public trust, in 1998. Trustees also inherited the park’s myriad financial problems with the transfer.

The park owes $99,062.72 in back amusement taxes from 1996 and 1997 plus $52,998.17 in interest as of Aug. 15 this year — for a total of $152,060.90, with interest continuing to accrue at 6 percent per year.

The township is accepting sealed bids on the judgment until a special meeting Dec. 30 at 4 p.m. Bids must be for a minimum of $152,000, and each bid must include a certified check or money order for 10 percent of the bid amount. The winning bidder will have until Jan. 30, 2009, to pay off the balance.

The winning bidder could end up forcing a sale of park assets — including land — to satisfy the judgment by filing for a writ of execution with county court, according to Bob Bailey, an attorney with Shafer Law Firm, who handles sheriff’s sales for the county.

Typically, any sale date would be at least a minimum 60 days after the filing.

“If they buy it (the tax judgment), they buy it warts and all,” Bailey said, referring to any number of problems such a sale could create for the park and its current list of unpaid creditors.

If a sheriff’s sale of assets does take place, all other judgments that were filed before Summit Township’s would have to be satisfied first, before the holder of the Summit Township amusement tax lien would get paid.

“It’s unlike bankruptcy court where a bankruptcy judge has the power to wipe out previous debts,” said Bailey, who did not say how many debts are owed prior to the Summit tax judgment. Those other judgments include back real estate taxes and any other liens that were filed before the amusement tax lien.

As of this week, the park owed a total of $570,872.34 in back real estate taxes to Crawford County, local municipalities and Conneaut School District, according to Fred Wagner, county treasurer.

Moyers said if the purchaser of the lien would choose to foreclose, the result could be catastrophic to any future park operations and that the public nature of the park would be lost.

“The purchaser (of any park property) would be free to utilize the asset that is the park for whatever means that they choose including bulldozing the entire area and erecting whatever type of housing or condominiums that they choose,” he said. “(The supervisors) are, potentially, taking all control over the future of the park out of the trustees’ hands.”

The chance of that happening is cause for obvious concern to the trustees, who have marked some recent successes, Moyers noted. In fact, trustees are currently working on lease agreements for the Beach Club, hotel and rides, he said Thursday. The park was virtually idle in 2007 after it wasn’t able to get enough funds to open. The Beach Club and Hotel Conneaut were able to open during part of the 2008 season, and the park did host some special events, such as Pumpkin Fest this fall.

Harry McGrath of Summit Township said supervisors don’t feel they’re taking control of the park away from the trustees.

“We don’t know what’s going to transpire,” McGrath said. “We don’t want to close Conneaut Lake Park. We want to keep it open, but we need the money. We’re just after the revenue we need.”

“Everybody’s feeling the financial crunch,” said Joel Stone, chairman of the supervisors. “Our budget is tight. We didn’t want to raise taxes. We don’t feel it’s right to keep going to the taxpayers asking for money.”

Summit gave preliminary approval this week to its $443,300 general fund budget and kept the township’s tax rate at 5 mills.

The amusement tax debt is almost equal to 5 mills of real estate tax in the township. One mill of township real estate tax generates about $32,000.

Moyers said Conneaut Lake Park is taking steps to pare down its approximately $2.4 million in total debt.

Trustees are working on getting lease agreements for various aspects of the park — including Hotel Conneaut, Beach Club, rides and concessions — to help trim the debt. Private groups have been operating the hotel and Beach Club since mid-summer, but the rides and concessions have been closed for two years.

“The trustees have no choice at this point but to press on and hope for the best,” Moyers said.