CONNEAUT LAKE PARK — Business was brisk at Conneaut Lake Park Wednesday as the phones rang constantly with callers buying tokens to help raise money to open the 115-year-old amusement park this summer.

At the end of the day, cash on hand totaled $2,385 — with 477 tokens sold.

The park must sell 59,523 more to raise the $300,000 it needs to open.

Park manager George Deshner announced Tuesday that the park will sell the tokens, made of copper and brass, for $5 each. If the park opens, the tokens can be exchanged for a wrist band, giving the holder the right to ride all day on any Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. Usual price for those days is $8.95 for children and $13.95 for adults.

If the park doesn’t open, the token will become a collectible.

He said the idea is to allow people to get something in return for their money.

Deshner said questions were asked Wednesday about how the money would be used if the park doesn’t open. “We have to take steps to secure and preserve it,” he said of the park. “We will use it for that — for the park’s future.”

The park had planned to sell 3.3 acres on its lakefront to raise the money it needs to open this year and pay down some debt, but the sales agreement was rejected by Crawford County Judge Anthony Vardaro for various legal concerns Monday.

With no land-sale proceeds or other money available, park officials turned to a different approach and came up with the idea to sell the tokens.

The tokens were produced in the 1990s and used in the park instead of cash. One side has an engraving of the park’s logo; the other side has a commemorative design in memory of Don Guckert, a long-time park employee who died in 1996. They were left at the park, gathering dust in a storage area. Deshner came up with the idea of turning the copper and brass coins into “gold” — in a manner of speaking.

Besides money received from token sales, there have been lots more phone calls requesting information the tokens, he said, and he knows many more have been sold but with the money not yet collected.

PURCHASING TOKENS

Conneaut Lake Park tokens sold to date number 477, with $2,385 collected.

Tokens may be purchased at the following locations: