It’s a real splash in the face.
New York water park owners say it’s not fair that they can’t open for business anytime soon under the Cuomo administration’s coronavirus reopening plan, yet their counterparts in neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut — the state’s “regional partners” — have been given the green light.
“Now our neighbors in Connecticut 20 miles away are open, New Jersey is open … and Ohio is open and we’re crushed right now in this state of limbo — with this much staff, this much capital outlay and no answers,” Steve Turk, the owner and operator of SplashDown Beach Waterpark in Fishkill, NY, griped to The Post.
The Cuomo administration broke the news to local officials across the state in a conference call earlier this week that amusement parks and water parks, as well as gyms, shopping malls, and movie theaters won’t be permitted to open in Phase Four — believed to be the final stage — of the state’s reopening plan.
“We’re an outside water park only, and it’s a small park,” said Turk, noting that he had hoped to have been open before Fourth of July weekend.
Turk said it has taken “several million dollars” to get the water park “where it is now,” and feels he has been left in the dust.
“This is our life. This is our livelihood, and we’re in pain. It’s brutal,” Turk added.
The water park’s chief operating officer, Andrew Chafatelli said, “We’ve been on the phone every week, searching for answers and just haven’t gotten them.”
“Beaches can be open, pools can be open, zoos can be open, all these outdoor places can be, [and] we just are trying to understand what the difference in venue is,” Chafatelli said as he explained that the park has suffered hundreds of thousands in lost revenue.
Katie Wojdyla and her sister Kelly Greene, the owners and operators of the Enchanted Forest Water Safari Resort in upstate’s Old Forge — a popular Adirondack town — were also among those proprietors dismayed by the news that they won’t be allowed to open the park in the near future.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” said Wojdyla. “It’s hard to open a water park in a regular year, and all of this on top of the COVID guidelines we’ve been working on and the different aspects of our business outlooks for this summer.”
Wojdyla called the news “disappointing” and said that she believes the water park can “safely” open up.
“We’re an outdoor experience,” she said. “People coming in with families and traveling groups and it wouldn’t be much different from going to a beach and experiencing the outdoors.”
New York GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik said that the decision by the state to not permit water parks to reopen under Cuomo’s reopening plan “is devastating for the North Country and for many of our tourism-based businesses and it is so integral to our summer economy.”
Amusement parks and water parks were permitted to reopen in New Jersey on July 2 at limited capacity and in Connecticut on June 17.
As the coronavirus crisis was mounting, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont shutdown businesses in conjunction across the tristate region.
The three governors even previously teamed up in an attempt to form a “regional” approach to reopening from the coronavirus closures in the states.
“We are in constant consultation with our neighboring states, but ultimately each makes their own determination and right now, with infections skyrocketing across the country and clusters are forming around places where social distancing is virtually impossible, we’re not opening amusement parks, water parks, or any other place with the ability to draw large crowds,” said Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi.
“Be smart, wash your hands and lastly wear a mask — which last I checked you can’t really do on a waterslide,” he said.
Additional reporting by Natalie Musumeci