Couch on LeSourdsville Lake: "It hurts me"

I expect no less from you, Gonch. Of course, I just saw an ad in our local paper advertising deep discounts in RV prices. So maybe they're not sailing off the lots everywhere. Besides, you don't trust "industry" press releases, do you? :)

Someone should suggest that Shapiro set up a few RV lots at SF parks. Maybe Winnebago would be a better partner than Home Depot. And it would only cost you $15 to browse the latest models.

*** This post was edited by RatherGoodBear 5/26/2006 4:26:42 PM ***

When Couch purchased the land from Park Rivers West, the State of Ohio was in the process of deciding where the State Route 63 extension would cross State Route 4 and the Great Miami River. One speculation was through the north edge of the park between the picnic groves and the western area. Couch had his eye on having both access to Route 4 and Route 63, plus the sale of the land to the State of Ohio. He wasn't looking to open a park but have a prime location for his RV business. Later the state decided on a location about a half a mile north of the park. Of course that is as far as the extension progress has went.

During his lease to the operator, there was a dispute on whether he had the right to relocate and expand his RV business on the property. Basically Pugh stopped his plans for the relocation. Pugh pointed out that in the contract that Couch basically gave Pugh control of the entire property and had not included any relocation of the RV Business to the property. The process of relocating was already in process before any contracts were ever written up, but Couch did not spell his plans out in the contract. This started a little mini war between the two which ended up with Couch finding a way to boot Pugh at the end of the season when he stopped paying the parks bills.

This was the beginning of the end, because Jerry does not like to be told what to do. This coming from someone who grew up around the Couch family. After that he was not interested in any more operators for the park. He also did not have the capitol to reopen the business and expand his RV business at the same time. So here we are with the rides are up for sale and the RV business converting the Amusement Park into a RV Park. What will become of the Eagle is a mystery at this point, but it is not looking very promising.*** This post was edited by lumpy72 5/27/2006 1:01:07 PM ***

I think it was a little premature on Couch's part to completely close down the park and sell most of the rides after only one season.

So he lost $500,000 reopening the park. It's very rare that a business owner makes a profit in the first few years of being in business. You can only judge how successful the business is according to the long run profit. When you say that if the park really was so important, then why didn't enthusiasts flock to it? Well that's because it was only open for a year and not everyone had a chance to visit. I was lucky enough to visit the park in 2001 and I LOVED it.

What's interesting is that Couch is investing $2 million in his RV dealership. Do you think he will make more than $2 million in the next year? If he loses any money in the short run, then he should shut down his business and leave the market.

For those who don't know much of the facts-LL was not desired to open in 2002. There is a lot of things about the situation there that the general public, including the enthusiasts just have no clue about. I know a good bit of happenings from 2002 and am not at liberty to discuss them. I was there and seen first hand some of the things that went on. I know the struggles that took place to get the gates open.

As with the LL/Americana site, a lot of people talk about this situation whom were not there and are unaware of the facts of what all went on in 2002. I think if people knew, the whole scenario would make more sense and the posts would start aiming in a different opinion.

I hated to leave the park. It could have been a great success if the problems didn't occur. In fact, I think the place would have grown and become more than anyone could dream. In talking with a gentleman contracted in to run the place, while I worked under him, we concurred on the potential of the park. We even discussed the ideal plans for expanding the park. However, it was all for not.

I will say that the future of that park would have been to create a wet zone with multiple slides and such. I had rendered a layout for this expansion, but we couldn't do it!

I hope Coney grows for the sake of the picnic crowd!