Astorino Gets BOL’ed Off on Playland Kids Lease
Shocker.
The tit-for-tat continues.
If you missed the latest sand throwing between County Exec Rob Astorino and the Westchester County Board of Legislators (that's BOL), the BOL voted Wednesday evening to override the County Executive’s veto of a ten year lease agreement for the operation of a children’s museum in a historic building on County property at Playland.
Under the terms of the lease, the Westchester Children’s Museum will occupy about half, or approximately 21,390 square feet, of the former men’s bathhouse on the Playland boardwalk and make $6,441,300 in interior and exterior renovations in exchange for a yearly rent of one dollar ($1).
“The reuse of a portion of the Playland bathhouse as a children’s museum is consistent with the family-oriented concept and mission of this wonderful County resource,” said Rye Rep and Majority Whip Judy Myers, who sponsored the lease bill in the Budget & Appropriations Committee. “The museum will serve as another attraction at Playland during the summer months, and will bring visitors out through the rest of the year as well.” Majority Whip Myers noted that over 870,000 children under 11 years of age live within a 15-mile driving radius of the future museum site at Playland Park in Rye.
To date, the Children’s Museum has raised over $8 million for the project. Tracy Kay from the Children’s Museum expects to have 198,000 visitors per year and 50,000 cars over the course of a year.
