Little interest from companies in managing Rye Town Park

A joint municipal commission stumbled in its search to find a private operator for Rye Town Park, a 28-acre shoreline property on the Long Island Sound.

The Rye Town Park Commission, the park”™s governing body, received only one response to a recent request for proposals for possible uses of a 100-year-old pavilion building and long-unused bathhouses at the park. The bid was rejected last month, only half a year after a previous request didn”™t result in even one official bid.

It is unclear what the next step is for the commission, which is led by elected officials from Rye town and Rye city, two different entities that share ownership of the park. The commission wanted to put in place a 20-year agreement with a private operator for the park and hand over the keys for the 2015 season.

The park is in a mostly residential neighborhood, and with access to the beach and only a short walk down the coastline to the Playland boardwalk, it”™s a popular summer destination. But the park has been a financial burden. It runs in the red annually and its aging infrastructure is deteriorating. When the park operates at a deficit the town and city have to make up the difference in their own budgets.

The bid process emulated Westchester County”™s plan to hand over management of county-owned Playland to a private operator, but the nonprofit chosen for the task and the county mutually decided to scrap that agreement this week.