Steel Hawg - Trailer

Steel Hawg has begun to arrive.

http://www.indianabeach.com/blog/

Any thoughts as to what's on these pallets?

I definately don't have the skillz when it comes
to putting the pieces of the erection puzzle together. (err did I just say that)

I don't know if anyone here lives close to IB to take some pics, but I have a good friend from Monticello.... Gonna see if he can hook us up with some photos from across the lake or maybe even closer.

Couldn't it be the bolts to assemble the structure? Every steel coaster has bolts. I live 40 minutes from Monticello, but I don't have a car with me, sorry:(

Has anyone said to themselves that this is an S&S Power ride. I have a feeling it is going to work fine for the first couple of weeks but once summer is in full swing I think the ride will take a crap like every other S&S Power ride.

While I guess you can say that about the Thrust Air coasters and Screamin' Swings, their tower rides such as Power Tower at Cedar Point never seem to be very reliable.

There are some problems with the park lately. Since the family run amusement park was sold to USA's biggest RV company, it's no longer a family owned park. On top of this, bad things have so far been happening. The new management has fired the entire staff that has worked at the park. Their plans were to cut everyone's pay (like the pay wasn't low enough the way it was) to a lower pay rate and the employees were upset about it so the new management decided to fire almost everyone. Even employees who have worked for the company for over 20-30 years, they were almost all fired within the last few weeks. They are planning on hiring a bunch of people this coming month but the funny thing is that the amusement park had trouble finding enough workers to fill the shifts the past 8+ years, and even had to shut down rides because they didn't have enough workers to fill the spots. Now the new management are going to be in a situation where they are going to hire and fire people and then won't be able to find any employees filling out applications and all of the ones that manage to stay will be going back to college and school, leaving the park like 3 weeks without any employees to run the park. The new management will be in for a real surprise the way they want to hire people for minimum wage and then find out that noone is going to work for them for that price. There's some people worked there for like 20 years and was only getting paid 7-8 dollars at most an hour and they wanted to cut them people down to minimum wage.....HAHAHAHHAHA!! This company is going to bring a lot of problems to this park if they aren't careful. Indiana Beach is heading downhill fast if this new company doesn't get their act together and take care of it's customer base and employees. The original family should of never of sold it when they did, it was bad timing....another family park gone by corporate takeovers.......how long will it be till Indiana Beach gets shut down like Gauega Lake and other parks around the nation going down the hill?????

This sounds unfortunate if true, that being said... I am curious .... what's your source for this info?

relatives who worked for the amusement park for years....and friends who got fired...

I hope some of these rumors are not true. IB is one of my fav parks, on par with Kennywood, etc.

Let's all hope for the best and send them good vibes the way of the Crow (haters keep out!)

Well considering this Rick guy who got fired from Geauga Lake is in charge, he'll probably hire and fire people constantly since he's new and want to make a change in the park. The problem lies in the fact that Monticello and surrounding areas is mostly farm land and this idiot will soon find out there won't be anyone working for him in a couple years if he continues to do what he's planning on doing, hiring all new staff at 6.00 max an hour and expect people to work hard and be nice to the customers. There was a reason why he was fired from these other parks, though he did bring good things to some of these parks. What's bad is that his plans are to change the park to a cleaner theme type park. Unfortunately IB's success for the past 80 years hasn't catered to the rich/clean families. Simple things that made people come to the park like the weird fountains, the carp feeding, games, etc might be gone now. The good news though might be that they will add more quality thrill rides to attract more people. We will have to wait and see but I don't like one bit how they are handling the employee situation and their idea of pay rates...........they are losing respect already from the entire county around here.

They even fired Ruth Davis who operated the park her entire life almost, ever since Tom Spackmann let his daughter run it.........just because she thought it was a bad idea to cut people's pay rates......which were bad to begin with.....

Everyone should (in a VERY NICE way) call the new owners and let them know how you feel.

Be sure to give them the reasons you like IB, THE WAY IT IS, and the people that work there.

Forget all the doubters saying that 'that won't matter' or whatever.

Yes it would be nice to address concerns to the new people in charge. Like I said, Josh Collins and Rick McClurey guy is in charge, and their plans is to cut all the employees pay rates and fire people who are making above that so that they can hire people who will be getting paid minimum wage to work as slaves. The employees who work for IB have always been known to be very nice and friendly, unlike most other parks in the nation. This will do nothing but piss these employees off and they won't care if they get fired or not because the pay rate sucks so bad. It's a respect kind of issue and Mr. Collins and McCurley has already broken that bond. It's important to telephone IB and tell them what you enjoy about the park before these two guys decide they want to change the entire park into something it's customers don't want. It's a unique park and changing it into a corporate park will more than likely be a failure, something these two guys know very well from their past jobs they've been fired at already.

I'm working on getting some info from a reliable source - but I know that people have been let go.

I've heard that the main ride maintenance crews are still in tact.

I hate to say it, but it seems like something really stinks in the Monticello area. It's too bad, because Indiana Beach is one of my favorite parks and I would hate to see a change in ownership ruin a good thing.

Back to Steel Hawg... I'm not one to judge a ride before it opens, but to me it appears this ride is going to be pretty painful. Some of those transitions look wrong, and not in a "wicked cool" sorta way. I agree with Lisa, it looks like the more recent K'Nex coaster!

It certainly doesn't look like a coaster made for an ERT marathon, that's for sure.

I sure hope this odd looking prototype coaster wasn't some sort of bad omen or warning.

Sure enough, the rumors are true. Lot's of people have been let go.

If you like the park and way they run it, let them know.

*** Edited 3/18/2008 2:55:33 AM UTC by CoasterComet***

I'd just like to state how uncomfortable it feels to me that someone might actually call the park or the operating company and question/chastise them over their employment approach.

That seems extraordinarily irresponsible to me and goes well beyond crossing the line.

I'd also like to state that if this were my site, I'd close the thread and remove the phone numbers.

^ Hey Gonch, I didn't tell anyone to chastise anyone... If you read up, I said it would be nice to let them know how you feel in a VERY NICE way. I think it's important to let them know (for myself) how great the park is THE WAY IT IS and with THE CURRENT (-2007) EMPLOYEES.

Shut down the topic!? Geez, sounds like the government is hanging around here too!

I took it upon myself to remove the phone numbers. If someone wants to call, it's a no brainer to get the numbers off IB site. *** Edited 3/18/2008 2:57:23 AM UTC by CoasterComet***

I'm not telling you what to do - just stating my opinion...and the fact that I didn't kill the thread should relieve any concerns you have of being overmoderated or whatever.

I think you're stretching for an angle to complain and a customer (with no connection other than as a customer) has absolutely no place telling the company who to employ. That's no one's business but the company's and the employee's.

Times like this are exactly why I try to distance myself from being recognized as a coaster enthusiast at times. I'm embarassed for you, I'm embarssed for me, I'm embarassed for the former and current employees, I'm embarassed for pretty much everyone involved.

If you call an amusement park to complain about their pay scale and approach to enforcing it and try to claim your experience at the park will be affected in the future by said policies...and then worse, try to rally the enthusiast troops to do the same - you're a complete tool.

It has nothing to do with rolling over or standing up for something or whatever pretty little angle you want to play. It's about knowing your place and keeping out of things that really don't concern you.

As a fan of the park, coaster enthusiast and maybe even customer of the park - you're not as important in this situation as you think you are.

I can't possibly be the only who feels that way, can I?