Deirdre Curran said the flags at Playland would have been flown at half staff last weekend if not for Westchester County”™s deal with a private operator to run the ice skating rink there.
Former Gov. Mario Cuomo died Jan. 1, but the flags were not lowered at county-owned Playland until the following Monday, Jan.5. With a private operator now running the rink for its first winter, and with the amusement park closed for the season, no county workers were on site over the weekend.
Curran, a member of the freshly minted advocacy nonprofit The Friends of Playland, said the flags flying at full height was just a visible example of how a private management deal affects the park. She said she spoke with an employee at the rink who said there was no manager on duty for the weekend.
“That”™s a big building,” Curran told county lawmakers at their Jan. 5 meeting. “We just spent a ton of money fixing it and we”™re leaving it in the hands of teenagers the two busiest days of the week, all winter long, and that”™s because of the private management contract.”
Mark Zito works as general manager at the Playland ice rink for American Skating Entertainment Centers LLC, a company that runs 15 rinks around the country including one in Elmsford where the company is headquartered. It was the county and not the company that would raise or lower flags, Zito said. He also said the company always had a manager on site.
“There”™s one general manager and that is me and of course I”™m not here 24/7 but there are managers on duty in my absence,” he said. Although county workers aren”™t in the park on weekends throughout the winter, Zito said they are available by cellphone around the clock if needed. He said Westchester has been responsive and helpful, particularly in the transition period.
American just took over management of the rink, which was temporarily closed after sustaining daamge from Hurricane Sandy. Westchester spent $4.5 million to reopen the park and handed over the operations to American last year, in a 10-year deal that requires the company invest $640,000 in capital improvements and upwards of $250,000 annually for the life of the contract.
Zito said the company had undertaken improvements such as removing barriers from the ticket office so that customers deal with representatives face-to-face rather than through a window. “I think you”™ll find wonderful experiences for our customers here,” he said.
When Curran expressed her concerns over the flag, she said the incident should serve as a cautionary tale as county lawmakers ponder whether to hand over day-to-day management of the amusement park to a private operator. Curran noted that 2015 is an election year for Westchester legislators and she said she hoped that wouldn”™t mean they would enter a deal quickly before elections and in doing so forego proper vetting and transition periods.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino came into office in 2010, soliciting proposals to reimagine Playland. In 2012, Astorino chose nonprofit Sustainable Playland Inc. to run the park but that deal collapsed last spring. Two other groups, Standard Amusements Inc. and Central Amusement International Inc., the latter of which runs Coney Island”™s Luna Park, are now making their pitches to run Playland.
The county executive has deferred making a decision on whether to sign on with one of those operators or take other action until a report is completed by Manhattan-based Biederman Redevelopment Corp. The company will be paid $100,000 for an analysis of Playland operations that will include recommendations on how to improve the park.
That report was due at the end of November, but hasn”™t yet been filed with the county.
