An arbitration panel doubled down on its initial ruling regarding the ongoing dispute between Standard Amusements and Westchester County – reaffirming that Standard had no right to back out of its contract to run Playland without giving county officials a proper opportunity to complete improvements at the park.
Standard had filed a motion for reconsideration of the original ruling back on June 26, but the panel denied it, instead maintaining its initial decision.
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins, in a July 25 statement, said the panel’s decision to uphold its original ruling “sends a strong message that Westchester will not be bullied.”
“This ruling reaffirms what we have said all along: Westchester County has honored its commitments and acted in good faith to revitalize and protect Playland for future generations,” Jenkins, a Democrat, said.
The Record has reached out to Standard Amusements for comment and is awaiting response.
The 30-year deal between Westchester and Standard stipulated that the county was supposed to have substantially completed 70 percent of the projected capital project costs by April 30, 2024. Standard claimed the county only completed 31 percent of the work by the deadline, while the county argued it had completed at least 65 percent.
But the three-person arbitration panel decided the contract’s language legally prohibited Standard from exiting the deal after just three years without giving the county the “right to cure.” The panel found Standard’s notice of termination to manage the county-owned amusement park in January to be “invalid and void.”
Because of the bitter divorce, county officials scrambled to open the park over Memorial Day weekend, doing so with two-thirds of Playland’s rides shuttered. Since then, the county has slowly opened more rides, expanded hours, and added entertainment and food options at the park — although nearly half the rides still remain closed.
