Friends of Rye Playland Meet to Plan Park’s Revival and Outline Their Mission

Two weeks after Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins announced the formation of a new nonprofit Friends of Rye Playland and said Robin Latimer would be chair, the group held its first organizational meeting at the Rye Reads office on Elm Street Saturday. Twenty five Playland enthusiasts showed up to discuss deep connections to the park, old stories and new ideas to carry the park forward as it approaches its 100th birthday in 2028.

“Over the years, you know the turmoil it’s been through, and I just think it needs a group that will stand by it and help it survive,” Latimer told the assembled Playland adherents. “It just needs help, and that’s what our mission will be – keep it a friendly, affordable park for all to enjoy.”

Read: Rye Lifer: Robin Phelps Latimer

Watch: Meeting video below.

Attendees took turns introducing themselves while sharing stories, ideas and hope for the park. Among the assembled crowd – local realtors Connie Stetler and Cathy Garr, Steve Vasko (active with Friends of Rye Town Park), Anne Bradner (CEO of Carver Center), Kate Taubner, Linda Turturino, local photographer Maureen Tsuchida, Bobby Bianca (who runs the Bring Back the Airplane Coaster! Facebook group) and new County Legislator Anant Nambiar.

It is clearly the very beginning. The group is not yet a non profit, it does not have a board or even a formal mission statement. It does have a lot of enthusiasm. Latimer laid out a monthly meeting schedule and invited those assembled to indicate if they are interested in one of the 12 board seats. Those assembled volunteered their services – from finance to marketing to social media to nonprofit formation.

Jenkins Q&A

County Executive Ken Jenkins came by to provide a three minute pep talk that turned into thirty minutes of Q&A with the assembled crowd. Some of his talking points:

• The Dragon Coaster. “It was just flat out rotting” [it is undergoing repairs] and “We are going to open the Dragon Coaster on time” [it was not open all last season to the disappointment of many]
• Standard Departure. In the wake of Standard Amusement’s departure and as they scrambled to open the park in 2025, the Counted called Zamperla (the manufacturer for many of the park’s rides) for help and “they came in from Italy three days later without a contract”
• Repairs and Opening Rides. “The carousel burned out in the middle of the year, so the horses weren’t going up and down… that’s already fixed… The plan right now is to make sure that it opens up everything 100% safe, and to be able to move forward.”
• Free Opening Day. Expect another free opening day
• Events. Working on better events. Discussions with the Capitol Theater
• Preservation. On preserving the park’s history: “The Parks Department doesn’t do anything without going to SHPO, right?… We have so much history here in our parks in Westchester County, we really treasure the opportunity to continue that.” [SHPO is New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO)]
• Shake Shack. Back in 2019 tried to get Shake Shack to open a concession in the park.
• Hiring. On summer hiring “We usually have something in February, which we are going to have this year, and we’re going to continue to hire things, mechanics, getting people back on staff.” Old pre- Standard people are mostly gone.
• City of Rye and Playland. “Because we had the county owning the park, Standard running the park. You had things happening with the City, right?” [An allusion to the tensions between the City of Rye and the County around the taxability of Playland and the cost the City shoulders for emergency services.]
• Police and Fire Costs, Playland Tax Issue. “Mike Kopy is a personal friend… Okay, what do we do about fire and police? Because there’s an additional pressure on the city to do that… We work those deals out, but that’s a conversation, and we have done that – with your old city manager, you know, we had some kind of conversations. Sometimes they were good, sometimes they’re not good. And we gotta go through some things with the taxes, because people think that they’re like, oh, we want to tax the tiki bar, we are like..  it’s part of a bar. No, we told people, don’t do that, and they did it anyway. And I think it reversed itself a little, so we’re gonna keep working through it.” [More allusions to the tensions between the City of Rye and the County around the taxability of Playland and the cost the City shoulders for emergency services.]
• Parks as Money Makers vs Cost Centers. “Playland is a park, and parks don’t make money. Right? So if you start from that philosophical view that says it’s a park. It’s not going to make money, but it could get close to breaking even… The park that cost the least for Westchester residents is Playland… The most expensive parks that we run are golf courses.”

“There’s no barrier on what kind of things you’re going to come up with and then work with our partners on the Board of Legislators and us to get done, because at the end of the day, Rye Playland belongs to all of us,” concluded Jenkins.

Latimer reminded attendees the park is inclusive of the amusement park, the beach, the ice casino and the boardwalk. She has contacted Friends of Rye Town Park and Friends of Read Wildlife Sanctuary and hopes to coordinate with both groups as together the three represent a wide and continuous expanse of Long Island Sound shoreline. At the next meeting, she expects First Deputy Commissioner Peter Tartaglia of Westchester County Parks to come in for a discussion on Playland.