[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ccording to one Westchester County lawmaker, less than three months into a 30-year deal transferring control of county-owned Rye Playland to management company Standard Amusements, the private group has already breached contract, failing to make its first payment to the county.
“[Standard] missed their first contractual payment,” said county Legislator Ken Jenkins, a Yonkers Democrat. “We’re just giving away too much control.”
According to Jenkins, who opposed the contract that turned control of the amusement park over to Standard, the company’s first payment of $1.75 million—$250,000 of which was already paid to the county upon the contract’s approval in March—was due on June 15. Specifically why the rest of the payment wasn’t made, Jenkins said, is still unknown to him and his fellow lawmakers.
“There has been no information as to why they did not make the payment,” Jenkins said. “It’s possible that they didn’t know what we were going to do with [Playland’s] pool.”
On July 21—more than a month after the initial payment was due—a letter from Deputy County Executive Kevin Plunkett to Standard granted the company an extension for its first payment until Sept. 30; a date that coincides with the county Board of Legislators’ revised deadline for deciding the fate of the Playland pool, a decision that was initially supposed to be finalized by July 31.
Matt Richter, communications director for the board, who described Jenkins characterization of a “missed payment” as inaccurate, said that negotiations about the pool have played a central role in the decision to grant Standard an extension.
“[Standard] was worried about the fate of the pool,” Richter said, adding that both parties had maintained communication over the issue prior to the June 15 payment deadline. “There was never any discrepancy; never an expectation that wasn’t met.”
Richter said that both parties agreed that if a payment extension was imminent, wiring the $1.5 million to the county wouldn’t be necessary.
Currently, the future of Playland’s pool is under scrutiny by the Board of Legislators, which will consider several bond acts to either renovate the pool—which continues to leak significant amounts of water daily—or to remove it completely.
According to Board of Legislators Chairman Michael Kaplowitz, a Yorktown Democrat, who spoke about the pool last month during a committee meeting, Standard has little interest in keeping the pool.
But for county Legislator Catherine Parker, a Rye Democrat, the pool’s removal is a deal breaker for her. “If that was [Standard’s] intention to demolish the pool, the Board of Legislators should have been told that upfront,” Parker said. “A decision like that could’ve cost support for the agreement.”
Currently, according to a Standard Amusements representative, the company envisions the site of the pool as a spot for “light refreshments” and an “open veranda.” A contract between Standard and the county, however, leaves the future of the site open to interpretation by the company.
Projections put the cost of filling and removing the pool at approximately $2.7 million, while estimates to rehabilitate the pool have come in at an estimated $9.5 million, according to a recent Labor, Parks, Planning and Housing Committee meeting.
Now, the Board of Legislators will have approximately 60 days to come to a decision over what it wants to do with Playland’s ailing pool, otherwise Standard has the option to exit the agreement as per the contract signed in March.
Representatives for Standard Amusements could not be reached for comment as of press time.
