Sandy Beach Water Park remains closed for business. No one can slide down the water slides or play in the splash pool. It also means Macon-Bibb County isn't making money on admission fees and their lease.
According to the ownership agreement with the county, the county collects 1% of the park's revenue, but only if it's open. Otherwise, they can forget about the $5 admission fee for each car.
Now, the bank that holds the property says there's no guarantee it will open this summer. Mayor Robert Reichert is letting commissioners know the broker offered to sell the park to the county.
“If they don't open it, we'll have to ask the attorney to look at the contract and see what remedies we have,” said Reichert.
Art Barry, broker for the park, says they’ve reduced the price again to $395,000 far from their original asking price over $2 million.
Commissioner for District 6 Joe Allen says he wants to wait it out and try to get a lower price. Bibb County has already invested $248,000 for improvements to the park in 2014. Allen says that's enough.
“For less than $100,000, we'd take it off their hands -- they can't move that property, they can’t move that equipment, they just can’t,” Allen.
Barry says they've had interested buyers who the mayor says would be interested in purchasing the land from the county and managing the property. He's not cutting the county a special deal.
Barry says they're still hoping to open the park in time for Memorial Day if they can find a management company in time to run it.
A company owned by businessman Jeff Franklin opened the park in 2015, but two years later, the bank that loaned Franklin money for the project took over the park and a receiver has run it for the last two summers.