A Conneaut Lake businesswoman is calling on Crawford County Court of Common Pleas Judge Anthony Vardaro or the state to intervene quickly and help preserve Conneaut Lake Park as a “destination point” for tourism in the county.

Wanda Ramaley took her plea to the steps of the Crawford County Courthouse at noon Tuesday in an effort to attract media and public attention to the plight of Conneaut

Lake-area businesses.

Ramaley, owner of Stable Pit & Pub restaurant on the east side of the lake, was joined by Dick James, another

area resident, in her call for help.

She is asking the state to provide money to the Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park Inc. to purchase liability insurance to allow the park’s free act lawn to be used for festivals, and for swimming in the lake to be permitted.

If the state refuses, she is asking the state attorney general to request Vardaro to “break (dissolve) the charitable trust” and release the trustees from the legal requirements under the trust.

Under a deed from 1997 from former owner Gary Harris, the park must remain available for “public access to and use of Conneaut Lake and the lake shore, for swimming, and boating and the like” forever.

The trustees announced last week, however, that swimming is now off-limits because they can’t get liability insurance to cover it.

The 116-year-old amusement park did not open in 2007 after the previous court-appointed manager said there wasn’t money to open that year after a proposed sale of property was denied. A new board of trustees was appointed, taking over in mid-summer, but didn’t launch the amusement rides.

The Beach Club was in operation for about 10 weeks. Hotel Conneaut opened for a brief time until a zoning officer from Sadsbury Township said its fire escape wasn’t safe.

When the board of trustees attempted to secure insurance this year to cover swimming off the beach at the park, no insurance company would write a policy. The board then announced the ban on swimming this summer.

Reviewing a news article from several years ago when Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll visited Conneaut Lake Park, Ramaley quoted portions of it when Baker Knoll talked about the importance of preserving the park for the future.

“We are asking for them (the state) to pay the insurance premium. People still love the place. We don’t want to give up on it,” Ramaley said, asking the lieutenant governor to follow through with her comments and provide some funding.

It’s not just preserving the history of the once-flourishing amusement park. “It’s preserving the present,” Ramaley said. Her idea is to allow the use of the free act lawn for festivals to attract people to Conneaut Lake and allow the site to be preserved “until we get to the next phase,” she added, referring to what future plans the trustees may have for the park.