By Keith Gushard
April 29, 2009 11:14 pm
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CONNEAUT LAKE PARK — Looking around Conneaut Lake Park, brothers Tim and Richard Lisko see two things — a challenge and potential for the future.
“The potential is here,” Tim Lisko, 42, said of getting some of the rides at the amusement park operating again after a two-year absence. But it could be slow-going at first. “It will be three years to take off — to get the reputation back.”
“We can see growth here,” Richard Lisko, 40, said of the historic 117-year-old amusement park. “It’s a big resort area. It’s family-oriented.”
Lisko & Sons Amusements out of Lowellville, Ohio, recently signed a multi-year lease agreement with
Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park to operate rides at the park this year. The brothers are part of the second-generation of the family-run business.
The park will reopen Memorial Day weekend with its Kiddieland rides and a half-dozen other adult rides to be ready for the opening — Paratrooper, Flying Scooter, Tilt-A-Whirl, Tumblebug, the carousel and Skydiver, a ride the Lisko brothers are bringing to the park.
The park will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. After the opening weekend, plans are to operate four days per week — Thursday through Sunday — through Labor Day weekend and possibly additional dates in September.
Some other rides — Dodgem cars, Devil’s Den and the park’s popular miniature train — will be added during the season, the brothers said. The waterpark will reopen by July 4, but the famed Blue Streak wooden roller coaster won’t be operational until 2010.
Terms of the Lisko lease aren’t being disclosed by either side, but the brothers confirmed it was “a more-than-three-year contract.” Jack Moyers, chairman of Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park, has declined comment on the lease.
Rides at the amusement park didn’t operate in 2007 and 2008 because of financial problems at the park, which is more than $2 million in debt. The park’s Beach Club tavern and eatery and Hotel Conneaut were open part of the 2007 season and again in 2008. They will be open this season as well by last year’s operating group, which is not affiliated with the Liskos.
Right now, the Liskos’ focus is getting the rides ready to open for the Memorial Day weekend.
“It’s a challenge,” Tim Lisko said. “We’re working 12-hour days.”
“We want to get things open from the front gate down Park Avenue to Comstock Street and Kiddieland,” Richard Lisko said, referring to the layout of the park inside its front gate.
The concession stands and game buildings along the midway won’t be opened this year, but the Liskos will bring in concession and game trailers this year.
“We don’t have enough time to get everything open,” said Richard Lisko.
The Liskos say they expect to hire about 50 people for their operations at Conneaut Lake Park.
The brothers say they were attracted to Conneaut Lake Park after operating rides last October for the annual Conneaut Lake Pumpkin Fest held at the park. It was the first time they had operated rides for the Pumpkin Fest.
“It was a shame to see the park just sitting here,” Richard Lisko said. “We just started talking in the fall (to the trustees).”
Nancy Manning, co-chair of the Conneaut Lake Pumpkin Fest, praised the Liskos’ operation.
“They were easy to work with,” Manning said. “I’m excited they’re at the park. We had a good rapport with them. It was nice and clean. Safety-wise, they were very conscientious. We were very pleased.”
The Lisko family also has another Crawford County connection — operating rides at Spartansburg Fair for a number of years.
Lisko & Sons Amusements began in the 1960s with food concessions, said founder Steve Lisko. It added games in the 1970s and rides in the 1980s, he said.
“It’s a challenge, but we like a challenge,” the elder Lisko said in a telephone interview about opening up Conneaut Lake Park. “We believe it could work.”
Tim and Richard Lisko say the park’s reopening will help the Conneaut Lake economy, too.
“If this prospers then everything should make money — every hotel, motel, shop and bar and restaurant” said Tim Lisko. “People will have to stop for gas or something somewhere.”
“It will help us and help them,” said Richard Lisko.
However, the brothers also are realists.
They know they’re going to have to prove themselves to the Conneaut Lake community and the park’s marketing area of eastern Ohio and western Pennsyl-vania that the park is back.
“We’ll be showing them we’re up and running,” said Richard Lisko. “They’re going to be gun-shy and you can’t blame them.”
Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.
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