By Pete Chiodo

and Keith Gushard

CONNEAUT LAKE PARK — Karen Clinton was right where one would expect a grandmother to be after running around Conneaut Lake Park with her two young granddaughters for the last five hours or so — on a bench, catching her breath.

“I’m taking a rest,” Clinton said, stationed only briefly at a picnic table beside the park’s carousel. She and her family made the hour-long trip from Cranberry Township to spend the day at the park on Sunday.

“I saw it on the Internet that they were going to reopen and I thought we’d come up and see what it was like,” Clinton said.

Her assessment?

“It’s really nice,” she said. “It’s too bad they’re not able to restore it enough, but it’s nice. The kids are really enjoying themselves. They loved Kiddieland; it looks really nice.”

Although not all of it looks quite the way Clinton remembers it.

“The midway, I mean, it’s a mess,” she said. “We walked down to the beach, and there’s a lot of people down there. But all the way down, it’s all run down and falling apart.

“Are they going to try to bring it back, you think? It needs a lot of work.”

Park officials agree the 117-year-old Conneaut Lake Park still needs a lot of work, but they are hailing the Memorial Day opening weekend as a success, with an estimated 25,000 people attending the park from Friday evening through Monday afternoon.

“It was very successful. It’s encouraging,” Jack Moyers, chairman of Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park, the park’s public trust ownership group, said of the weekend’s attendance figures. “The weather was a big help.”

While the park doesn’t charge admission, the attendance estimate was based on ride tickets sold and the number of cars in the parking lot, he said

This was the first weekend the amusement park’s rides had been in operation since the 2006 season. The amusement park, which has debts of more than $2 million, was unable to get its rides operating in 2007 and 2008 because of financial problems. The park’s Beach Club tavern and eatery and Hotel Conneaut were open part of the 2007 season and again in 2008, which was run by a separate operating group.

Lisko & Sons Amusements of Lowellville, Ohio, which recently signed a multi-year lease with the trustees to operate the rides, was happy with the turnout as well.

“It was as good as we expected,” Tim Lisko said Tuesday. “We hope it’s a good sign. People were telling us they were happy it’s open again.”

Members of Classic Iron Street Machines said their car cruise-ins at the park Friday, Saturday and Sunday drew good crowds.

“There was a steady stream of people,” said Lon Williams, club president. “People were excited to see the park up and open again.”

“It was a great success,” said Bob Keller of the club. “It was more people than we expected. People were lined up for rides and concession stands, too.”

The park’s opening even drew praise from Bill Hillgrove, a Pittsburgh sports broadcaster and former member of the board of trustees.

“It was with great joy that my family was able to dock our boat at the park Saturday afternoon and witness people of all ages enjoying the treasure which has been placed in your trust,” Hillgrove said in an e-mail to the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “My seven-year-old grandson had a blast running from ride-to-ride and thoroughly enjoying himself.”

While it was a successful weekend, Moyers vows the park won’t rest on its laurels.

While all Kiddieland rides and nine adult rides are in operation, the park hopes to have its train ride ready in a few weeks and its waterpark running by July 4.

“We’re on a course of constant improvement this season,” Moyers said.



Area businesses

helped by opening

The park’s success also spilled over into the Conneaut Lake business community.

“It was a great weekend,” said Patty Reynolds, owner of the Irish Cove Motel, a 21-unit motel on Route 618 near the park. “It was twice as good as last year.”

When the park wasn’t in operation the past two summers, Reynolds estimated her business was off 40 to 50 percent.

Bill Singleterry, co-owner of Pelican Landing II, a Conneaut Lake restaurant, called it a “very, very good weekend” for his business.

“We were about 25 percent above last year,” Singleterry said of Memorial Day weekend. “I believe the park is an important part of it.”

That’s something Moyers likes to hear.

“One of our goals is to be an economic engine and help draw people to the area,” Moyers said.

The Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates tourism money turns over as much as seven times within a community as people go to restaurants, buy gas, shop and stay overnight. As visitors spend money here, those businesses recirculate the money by paying employees and suppliers. It turns over again as employees at those businesses buy goods and services locally.

Meanwhile, Moyers said the park will market itself through advertising and press releases to media outlets including forthcoming radio ads and billboards.

“We welcome as much local traffic as we can get,” he said. “We’re also marketing in the Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Youngstown areas.”

The goal is to bring people who visited the park this past weekend to return later in the season.

“We’re hoping people will come back and see how we made progress,” Moyers said.



Pete Chiodo can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at pchiodo@meadvilletribune.com. Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.