More than 3,300 people have signed an online petition to try to save the now-closed Wildwater Kingdom.
Heather Schneider started a change.org petition five days ago to save the water park, which straddles Aurora and Bainbridge Township. It officially closed down on Labor Day. Owner Cedar Fair had announced the closure about two weeks earlier.
The petition had more than 3,300 signatures as of Friday evening. Schneider said she will deliver the petition to Cedar Fair and Aurora Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin.
A message left with a Cedar Fair official was not returned.
In a telephone interview, Womer Benjamin said she became aware of the online petition Thursday night.
“People certainly have the right to object and petition and express their concerns and their anger. I completely understand that,” she said, adding that city officials only found out about the water park’s closure right before it was publicly announced.
But Womer Benjamin said she doesn’t think the petition will change Cedar Fair’s mind.
“I think this is part of a longer-term strategy dealing with all of their Geauga Lake property,” she said.
On the petition, Schneider wrote: “By taking away this park WE lose! When we go there we can tell stories of our childhood, family trips to the park and picnics.
“It’s our getaway from daily life. Generation after generation has been coming here to this secluded area to enjoy time with family and friends. When I come here the excitement from my childhood visits comes alive. The walk down to the main gate reminds me how exciting it was and still is just being there. As I walk through the park memories flood my mind with each step. Buildings and bricks. I never thought the landscape as a child would be etched into my mind the way it is. I love it here. This is my favorite place in the world. It has my heart.”
Patrons visiting the water park on the last day said they had a mixture of sadness and anger at the closing of the park.
It was once part of what was billed as the biggest amusement park in the world when Six Flags opened Worlds of Adventure, merging the former Sea World property with Geauga Lake to create a single park. Cedar Fair closed Geauga Lake in 2007.
Womer Benjamin said while she is saddened to lose an amenity like Wildwater Kingdom, “on the other hand, having been working with Bainbridge and Cedar Fair over the last several years, as Cedar Fair transitions the Geauga Lake property, I think we have new opportunities ahead of us.”
The Geauga Lake and Wildwater Kingdom properties, owned by Cedar Fair, straddle both Aurora (320 acres) and Bainbridge Township (220 acres), Womer Benjamin said.
The closure of the water park will hopefully bring some progress to Cedar Fair’s plans to sell the property because “it has been somewhat frustrating over the last several years to have all of this vacant land along a main thoroughfare in Bainbridge and Aurora without any constructive or valuable use,” she said.
Aurora has rezoned the land from industrial to mixed use, hoping it would support a combination of retail, residential, recreational, commercial or institutional uses, she said.
Within the last two months, Cedar Fair officials also agreed to work with the communities in developing an unofficial master plan for the area, the mayor said.
“We have an opportunity to build a comprehensive planning strategy that could bring hundreds of new jobs and new investment,” she said.
To see the petition, go to www.change.org and search for “Wild Water Kingdom,” (two words for Wildwater) or go here online: www.change.org/p/cedar-fair-entertainment-company-save-geauga-lake-s-wild-water-kingdom-family-park.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty