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WPCNR PLAYLAND GO-ROUND. By John F. Bailey. April 15, 2015:

Matt Richter, spokesperson for the County Board of Legislators this morning told WPCNR that two county legislature committees, Labor, Parks, Planning and Housing, chaired by Legislator Peter Harckham, and Budget and Appropriations, chaired by Legislator Sheila Marcotte  will be the lead committees evaluating the Playland proposal presented by County Executive Robert P. Astorino yesterday.

Richter said a 90-page piece of legislation was being reviewed by Harckham’s committee in a meeting this morning.

He said no schedule has been set yet for meetings, the agreement with Standard Amusements announced yesterday, that was negotiated privately by the County Executive staff, according to Board of Legislators Chairman Michael Kaplowitz who said he knew nothing about the deal before the news conference.

Asked  why the Standard Amusements deal is different from what Sustainable Playland had proposed that the Board of Legislators was concerned about, leading Sustainable to withdraw its plan, Richter said it was “profoundly different,” saying that the problem the Board had with the Sustainable Playland proposal was that Sustainable needed to sign contracts with operators (one of them was Standard Amusements) to secure financial investment in the park.

Asked if Standard Amusements has provided specific financials on the operation of the park yet, Richter said they had not.

Asked, if the agreement was approved by the County Board when Standard would pay the $2.5 Million upfront money as part of the proposal, Richter said that was not clear yet. Richter said that Standard had an opt-out option that they would evaluate the Playland operation this summer. In October, Standard would decide whether they would stay and operate, and if they chose to not continue, they would pay the County $500,000.