Electric company sues Conneaut Lake Park for $273k in unpaid bills

Here we go again.

Did PNC inherit the National City "owed money" after they bought them out a while back?

The Electric Company's lawyers had this to say about the situation.

I heard it went more like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb1HSnuR8WE&feature=related

;)

I'm completely astounded that anyone is willing to give this park credit, power, water, the time of day.

Its all about preserving history and I think the community sees that and they want to make it work. To me its keeping another park from the chopping block so I am happy the park is still around its a nice place to go with your family and have a picnic and you don't have to worry about the huge rollercoasters or massive crowds. Just a place that you can unwind and relax. Im really hoping this park will pull through everything. It really is a treasure.

Yeah, for years we've been hearing about good intentions and the complete lack of acceptance that operating this place costs money. Face it, if it was that much of a treasure, it wouldn't be in this condition. You can unwind and relax at the local city park.

It won't be open for long without electricity. Jeff is right, good will does not negate the need for sufficient working capital.

Can you clarify the situation a bit? If the Board of Trustees is being sued over the prior bad debt, how is that not going to impact current operations? Even if the new management is keeping the park's head above water, how is it going to manage these old debts?

The Trusteeship is managing the old debts, with scheduled payments to creditors. Some creditors are forced to file with the courts. That bill was over $305,000. As lease payments are made, Pennelec gets some loot.

This is all part of the $2.4 million debt load. Not unrealistic.

Where is the trusteeship getting the money to manage the old debt? From lease payments alone?

Seriously. I am just trying to understand what the business plan might be. I think CLP had a lot to offer the community back in its day. I spent a lot of time there as a kid and it was a great place for our family.

But so much has changed since then as it didn't have the financial strength to sustain the bad decisions and management issues that sent it into the downward spiral that it seems to still be spinning in. Without a sustainable long-term plan, its just not going to recover.

Does anyone really know what that plan might be? Or if there even is one? Volunteerism isn't going to sustain it in the long-term.

There is no plan. That's the joke. Incompetence just keeps getting replaced with incompetence. All the fairy dust and warm fuzzies in the world won't change that. Either find someone who knows what the hell they're doing or call it a day. What happened before is irrelevant. You can either deal with the issues or you can't.

Jeff said:
All the fairy dust and warm fuzzies in the world won't change that.

So I guess we can rule out Disney or Sesame from buying it. :)

There is no plan. That's the joke. Incompetence just keeps getting replaced with incompetence.

Jeff, I'd be very interested in hearing you back this up. Are you talking about park operations, or inherited debt? If it's the latter, I have no idea how that $2+ million gets paid off. But if you're suggesting that the Liskos don't konw what they're doing, you haven't convinced me.

Do you know for a fact that the park is running an operational deficit this year? Otherwise, from the outside it seems like they have been making slow but steady progress in bringing the park back up to snuff.

Even though I have a soft spot for CLP, I have been as skeptical as the next guy about its long-term future. Short term, however, the Liskos seem to be doing almost everything right, as far as I can tell.

I always find it amusing that any time there's a thread about Conneaut, there's at least 10-12 posts from people who claim they don't care about the place. You'd think they were going to get the money to pay the debts by sawing you open and taking it out of your colon.

Um...eww.

So would that leave you with a semi-colon?

I think it would leave you with a crappy plan which was really the whole point to begin with. ;)

I don't really know who that comment was directed toward, but for me, I really am interested in understanding the plan in play for CLP. Ken has a signature that states he is a CLP representative, so I was hoping he could shed some light about the details of what's going on.