Rye police and fire personnel have racked up an annual bill of more than $300,000 responding to incidents at county-owned Playland over the last few years, a growing cost that county officials have been unwilling to reimburse the city for.
All three candidates for mayor of Rye agree they should.
Since the historic amusement park, which sits along the Long Island Sound, is located in Rye, the city is required to send its first responders — police and fire – when there is an emergency. The city also contracts with Rye Brook and Port Chester to handle EMS calls, and all three communities split that annual cost.
Service calls to Playland have increased in recent years, but the funding hasn’t followed. It has caused the city to redeploy its personnel to account for the increased demand.
Councilman Bill Henderson, the Republican mayoral candidate, said it might be time to tell the county to pay up or “staff up.”
“If there’s a fire you have to respond, and that sort of thing kind of puts us in a tough situation,” he said. “But maybe that’s the answer … we reach out to them and say ‘two years from now, we’re not coming, and so you better staff up, or let’s talk about some cost sharing here.’”
The relationship between the county and city government first soured in 2022 when the Rye city assessor put Playland on the city tax rolls in 2022. Rye argued that the park had become a for-profit enterprise when private operator Standard Amusements took over management of the park. Before that, Playland had long been tax exempt because it was a public park.
The county responded with a lawsuit and won an appellate court victory earlier this year.
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins, a Democrat, is an overwhelming favorite to win reelection next week, giving him four more years in office.
Auditors in 2022 calculated Rye police and fire costs attributed to Playland to be approximately $288,030, according to interim Rye City Manager Brian Shea. The shared Rye-Rye Brook-Port Chester $36,000 annual EMS bill brings Rye’s total to just over $300,000.
Councilman Josh Nathan, Rye’s Democratic mayoral candidate, agreed that the county should be reimbursing the city, but added that the goal should be creating a more collaborative relationship with the county, not getting caught up in a “combative situation” over Playland.
Photo Christian Falcone
“Here’s the cliff and I’m going to push you off it? Why would we start with that kind of attitude?” Nathan said. “We’re going to pay dearly if our leadership takes that kind of position.”
The Democrat said the level of service the city is being asked to provide at the park is an undue burden for Rye because Playland is large and is right “in the heart of Rye.”
“I just don’t think that the taxpayer in Rye should be paying for a service that is just so outsized,” Nathan added.
Independent mayoral candidate Rick McCabe also said a good relationship with Westchester County is the best way for the city to get support.
“What kind of water detention can we do at the airport? What can they help us with in terms of other … kinds of [storm] resilience projects?” he asked, while adding that compensating the city for its public safety response is only fair.
The county recently wrapped up a tumultuous season at the amusement park, after its public spat with Standard, which pulled out of its 30-year deal with Westchester to manage the property back in January.
“The management of Playland has been an issue for decades, right?” McCabe said. “The management of issues and its impact on Rye have been an issue for decades, and I think we have to work closely with the county and not have that be adversarial.”
The county executive’s communications director, Catherine Cioffi, declined to comment for this story.
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