Seven days a week Steve Turk applies his abundant energy to operation of Highland”™s Rocking Horse Ranch Resort, owned by the Turk family for half a century, and SplashDown Beach in Fishkill, purchased three years ago.
Rocking Horse Ranch opened two years before Steve Turk”™s birth. He grew up working at the ranch, in the kitchen, with the horses ”“ wherever his father, Nathan “Toolie” Turk, directed him.
Turk, who operates the ranch with his wife, Shelley, has fashioned it into a resort where families can enjoy activities together or separately. Three adult lounges serve liquor. When not with parents, children are in the care of trained counselors.
With summer water skiing on a private lake, winter snow skiing on freshly groomed slopes, fall horseback riding and spring fishing, “You”™ll wish there were more than four seasons to enjoy Rocking Horse Ranch,” Turk entices visitors through his literature.
Exotic animals have been introduced into the petting zoo. Favorites are a baby zebra and a camel.
Turk believes in giving children “a chance to do what they do best ”“ play.” He has created programs that include a supervised day camp, arts and crafts, a pool with fountain and a water slide. Activities also include, but are not limited to, hay rides, horseback and ski instruction, kayaks, paddle boats, tennis, shuffleboard, horseshoe pitching, bocci, miniature golf, archery, pingpong and square dancing. There is a nursery for the very young.
The SplashDown Beach endeavor is much more extensive than the curving yellow slides that motorists view driving south along Route 9. Behind the slides are such features as the Coconut Pool, Shipwreck Lagoon and PirateӪs Caf̩.
This year, as a prelude to Halloween, Turk has partnered with Kevin McCurdy of Kevin McCurdy”™s Haunted Mansion in Poughkeepsie to open Skull Island Scream Park at the SplashDown site. SplashDown was also the scene of a fall motorcycle classic.
With 150,000 visitors a year at SplashDown, Turk exercises great care in the matters of safety and cleanliness. Infants 2 years and under must wear reusable swim diapers purchased at SplashDown. “Once you own one, you keep bringing it back, and the infant enters for free,” Turk explained.
SplashDown personnel staffing the entrance check bags, particularly for any glass. “We also are concerned about bees now that we are offering free soda, so cleanup is a very high staff priority,” he said.
Since SplashDown is only open when school is closed, it is able to draw personnel from the local high schools to staff its food service, cleanup crews and other needs. “We are fortunate with the quality of students we have,” he said.
“We train our lifeguards internally and are rated by Ellis & Associates and the state Department of Health. We have passed every test.”
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Against the backdrop of deaths at Rye”™s Playland, Turk hesitates to boast about the record of zero fatalities at his two establishments, “because I am superstitious,” he said.
Nevertheless, he has had his bad moments. The worst, he recalled, was the two-day blackout at Rocking Horse. “There were 430 guests,” he said. “Many didn”™t remain, and we issued refunds.” Not risking a rerun, he has installed a generator.
Asked about his happiest day in business, he answered without hesitation, “It was when we bought out our uncle”™s family after court proceedings.”
Turk and his wife live in Highland close to the ranch with their teenage daughters, Samantha and Stefanie. While his father is deceased, his mother, Gloria Turk, lives next door.
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Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be emailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.
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