Amusement

A bill that could drastically increase the number of video poker games, pool tables and other amusement devices in Baltimore bars and convenience stores has been sent back to committee for amendments. City Councilman Robert W. Curran asked that the legislation be remanded to the Land Use and Transportation Committee on Monday. In a memo obtained by The Sun, Curran said he wanted the committee to add amendments that would increase licensing fees for the games. The bill was amended once before to increase such fees from $180 to $350.

For amusement park operators, last week was the ride from hell.From Sunday through Saturday, four people were killed and dozens were injured or terrified in six unrelated ride accidents from California to New Jersey.Federal safety authorities say six people have died this year in amusement park ride accidents, the highest for any year going back to 1987. But investigators have reported no clear pattern to the accidents, and federal safety officials concede the numbers might simply be climbing along with rising park attendance.

THE AIRLINE industry, the makers of Tylenol and Coca-Cola in Europe know about regaining public trust after their product causes someone to fall sick or die.Amusement park executives are likely reaching for those names in their Rolodexes following a spate of recent deaths and injuries on amusement rides nationwide. The accidents have cast a harsh light on roller coasters and made many folks wonder if the rush is worth the risk.Park operators will be sure to point out that roller coaster accidents are extremely rare, and they are; 1 in 450 million, by one estimate.

A letter in a local weekly newspaper has ignited an energetic movement in Howard County to resurrect the Enchanted Forest amusement park on U.S. 40 in Ellicott City.Since Barbara Sieg's call for action was published in Ellicott City 21042/3 on Feb. 18, the weekly has received more than 150 e-mails, letters and phone calls from parents and children offering to help revive the amusement park, which closed in 1989 and briefly reopened in 1994 before closing again.Several community activists have formed the Friends of Enchanted Forest, which will hold its inaugural meeting at 7: 30 tomorrow night at Cafe Bagel in the Lynwood Square shopping center in Ellicott City.

NEW YORK -- The city is exploring more than a dozen development proposals for Governors Island, the defunct Coast Guard base in New York harbor that President Clinton promised to sell for a dollar if New York came up with a publicly beneficial use.Many of the proposals involve hotels and conference centers, and both New York University and Columbia University are interested in establishing conference centers there, Deputy Mayor Randy Levine said.The Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art have expressed preliminary interest in setting up satellites, he said, and Tivoli Gardens, the Copenhagen amusement park, has submitted plans for an old-fashioned amusement park.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Amusement parks in California would be subject to government inspection and tougher fines under a measure overwhelmingly approved by the state Assembly, two years to the day after a student plunged to her death on a water slide.California, with its many amusement parks, has one of the worst safety records in the nation. Fourteen people have died since 1973 at amusement parks here, compared with one person in Florida during the same time period.Although the state regulates ski lifts, traveling carnivals and elevators, California is one of only four states that do not regulate permanent amusement parks.

A blue ribbon was awarded for a 79.6-pound watermelon, and emu chili was free for the asking. Midway winners walked off with stuffed prizes in the latest pop culture images: Pokemon and the Taco Bell Chihuahua. A bovine beauty contest was in full swing.And, in the middle of all this, a Texas farm girl asked the burning question: "Do fish get thirsty?"The 118th Maryland State Fair opened in Timonium yesterday -- in all its peach-pie, corn-dog splendor -- with its usual mix of carnival kitsch and farm-family values.

TOLCHESTER -- When she was growing up, Trisha Sawicki played in the Chesapeake Bay just a short stroll from the summer cottage that her grandfather built in this once-popular bayfront resort."

Thomas Richard Beers, a scientist and engineer who pursued a lifelong love affair with the arts, died of a heart attack Friday at his home in Roland Park. He was 85.During a long and colorful career, Mr. Beers promoted a traveling opera company, managed the old Carlin's Amusement Park, and helped create top-secret radar defense systems for Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Linthicum.In his spare time, he played the piano and organ, performed in amateur opera and musical productions, served as an on-air reader for the Radio Reading Service for the Blind, and restored antique cars.

A little after 1 p.m. on Aug. 28, 1963, Charles Langley arrived at Gwynn Oak Amusement Park with his baby daughter. The 28-year-old black clerk at the nearby Social Security Administration did not belong to a civil rights organization. He had never participated in the many protests at Gwynn Oak. And he certainly had not expected to find a group of reporters eager to record this family outing.But he was smothered by attention as he strolled through the amusement park. After visiting various arcades and looking at the rides, Langley put Sharon on the merry-go-round.

PITTSBURGH -- Schussing through ersatz Alps on mock bobsleds, riders on the Bayern Kurve tend to hang on for dear life rather than study the brightly colored lights illuminating the thrill ride at Kennywood. The bulbs shine in a variety of hues, but they're all green to the operators of this historic amusement park on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. In a bid to see if anyone notices, the traditional incandescent lights on this ride and another at Kennywood have been replaced by LED ones, saving money on the park's hefty power bill and greatly reducing the frequency with which the bulbs burn out and need replacing.

Parents who fear getting separated from their children at amusement parks, beaches and other vacation spots are turning more often to new high- and low-tech safety devices. GPS tracking devices with wander alerts emit beeps or vibrations when a child strays too far. Digital watches and apparel have high-decibel alarms. And there's the SafetyTat, a waterproof tattoo created by a Baltimore-area mom who wanted to attach her phone number to her child; a half-million have been sold. But even as these products allow adults to breathe more easily, experts caution that they shouldn't replace parental monitoring - and common sense.

Wooden roller coasters, boardwalk arcades and doo-wop hotels make a stay at the Wildwoods in New Jersey a trip not just three hours away, but one that feels many years back in time. The Wildwoods is three contiguous beaches on the Jersey Shore: the quieter, family-oriented beaches of North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest and the city of Wildwood, with its famed two-mile boardwalk and amusement parks. While each area offers distinct activities and amenities, all three have a retro look and feel.

With the chills of winter slipping away, the thrills of spring (and summer) are just beginning. That includes the openings of theme parks across the Mid-Atlantic region beginning in early May. Several parks have new rides, new shows and new attractions for all ages. Here's a look at some nearby amusement parks. Six Flags America, Bowie Distance from Baltimore:: About 40 minutes by car Opening day: : Open weekends now; daily hours begin May 22 What's new: : Six shows, most of them musical, have been added to the lineup.

'Small Miracles' a big blessing Thank you for the excellent article on the shelter where I got my cat ("Small Miracles," Jan. 25, Howard County section). I knew Moira Liskovec, operator of the Small Miracles Cat Rescue, from my vet's office and remember her as a warm and compassionate person. What a surprise it was to me to find out the kitten I adopted in June 2007 from the Columbia Petco came from Small Miracles, which is run by this awesome lady. Trey (whom Liskovec had called Cheeto)

Granville Daniel Trimper, who was a hands-on owner of Ocean City's famed seaside amusement park and was active in local politics, died Monday at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin. He was 79. Family members said no cause of death had been determined but that Mr. Trimper had been treated for an infection after knee-replacement surgery this summer. "After a lifetime spent running all manner of careening, tilting, whirling or spinning mechanical thrill rides, the 70-year-old patriarch never seems to tire of the nightly spectacle," said a 1999 Sun profile.

AUSTELL, Ga. - Six Flags Inc. Chief Executive Mark Shapiro looked up at Goliath, a 200-foot-tall roller coaster just outside Atlanta, as riders roared downhill at 70 mph. "Nice ride," he noted. "But we'll never get our return on investment with it." Six Flags, one of the nation's largest amusement-park companies, is under serious financial strain. It hasn't posted an annual profit in years. It's weighed down by $2.4 billion of debt, and faces a $288 million payment to preferred stockholders next August.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. / / Little is permanent here, but much is reused. That point will be made -- with a loud ka-raaaang -- this month with the launching of Hard Rock Park. The Southeast's first new amusement park in nine years opened Tuesday on the long-dormant Fantasy Harbor entertainment complex and partly on the rubble of the failed Waccamaw Factory Shoppes. Hard Rock Park opened with 55 acres of rides, eateries and shops on a 140-acre site about half the size of Carowinds in North Carolina or Tennessee's Dollywood.

The General Assembly has passed legislation that would let local governments give tax breaks to two Ocean City amusement parks, both of which have been grappling with skyrocketing property tax bills. The bills, which were sponsored by Del. James N. Mathias Jr., could help keep Trimper Rides and Amusements and the Jolly Roger Amusement Park in business. Both resort mainstays have struggled with escalating property taxes because of the real estate boom. "They're both very vital to the continued success of Ocean City," said Mayor Richard W. Meehan.

LANGHORNE, Pa. // Perhaps in time, anthropologists will look back on amusement parks and see them as hallowed sites that allowed us to pay homage to strange, fuzzy creatures called Muppets, an oversized, walking yellow bird or a mouse named Mickey that looks like no rodent that ever scurried the Earth. Yet for many parents, the summer is spent driving or flying with children in tow across great distances, sometimes hundreds of miles in the case of Walt Disney World, to wait in line for hours at the feet of giant likenesses of childhood characters.