Cedar Fair, who owns Geauga Lake Amusement Park, has announced that it will no longer be a roller coaster amusement park and instead focus its attention on the water park. The announcement came in a press release late this afternoon. In it the CEO Dick Kinzel said:

"After four years of operating Geauga Lake as a combined water park/amusement park attraction, we have concluded that its future should be entirely as a water park," said Dick Kinzel, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. "Visiting Geauga Lake is a 119-year-old tradition in northeastern Ohio. That tradition will continue, but in a new and exciting way."

"Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom has been recognized as one of the finest water parks in the country," Kinzel said. "Over the past three seasons, we have invested approximately $25 million to create and develop the premiere water park in northeastern Ohio. Since its opening in 2005, Wildwater Kingdom has been the park's highest rated attribute."

One wonders if this move will face public scrutiny. Cedar Fair runs what was then the area's biggest competitor to Geauga Lake in Cedar Point. It seems that Cedar Point bought the park just to take them out of business at first glance.

There have been murmurs that Cedar Fair, traded on the New York Stock Exchange as the ticker symbol FUN, wants to become a wants to become a private company. This could be a cost saving measure for the company, too, as water parks run from Memorial Day to Labor Day. With that in mind, the Aurora, Ohio, income and sales tax will take a major hit as the season will be much shorter than the April to October season it currently runs as.

In the second last paragraph the future for the Property that Cedar Fair owns seems apparent. It states, "The property not necessary for the operation of the water park is being reviewed for other uses and development."

It will be interesting to see how this passes the public litmus test and if they allow Cedar Fair to close one of the oldest operating amusement parks in the country. One thing is for sure, if you want to take one last ride on the Big Dipper, serving riders since 1926, it may have already given its last ride.