Beech Bend Park named Park of the Year and receives other honors at Amusement Today’s Golden Ticket Awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) September 15, 2010 --
Coaster enthusiasts, amusement park owners/managers, ride manufacturers and other prominent leaders in the amusement industry commonly refer to Amusement Today’s Golden Ticket Awards as the “Oscars” of the amusement park industry. Each year, parks all over the world compete for these highly coveted “Golden Tickets” in over 20 categories including best ride, best roller coaster (steel and wood), best shows, friendliest and many more.

This year, the prestigious ceremony was held at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia on September 11th. Park manager, Charlotte Gonzalez and her son, Reed attended the event representing Beech Bend Park & Splash Lagoon. Beech Bend Park was honored and humbled to be named Publisher’s Pick Park of the Year.

Beech Bend Park was honored as Park of the Year for it’s commitment to improving the park’s facilities, rides and guest accommodations in spite of very difficult obstacles that were encountered. Beech Bend embarked on the largest expansion in the park’s history in October 2009 with the planned addition of a new wave pool, lazy river, water play structure and three new rides.

Construction began in October as planned. Not planned, December was one of the coldest and wettest on record. Not planned, park owner Dallas Jones would be admitted to the hospital in early February for open heart surgery followed six days later by gall bladder surgery. Not planned, Jones contracted a life-threatening blood infection as the result of the surgeries and spent another three weeks in the hospital. Determined, Jones went back to work the day after his hospital release and got the projects back on track. The park staff worked diligently to open the adjacent raceway and campground and was ready to open the amusement park on May 1st when disaster struck again. Rain resulting in the worst flooding in Nashville’s history would make its way to Bowling Green. The Barren River surrounds the park on three sides. By the time it quit raining, flood waters were 30-35 feet high in the campground and 20 feet high over the racetrack. Somehow the park was dry, but the water park expansion project wasn’t. Wave making equipment and fiberglass slides and parts were washed downstream miles away. A recovery plan was put in place and the amusement park opened May 8th. The racetrack re-opened about 3 weeks later and the campground re-opened about 5 weeks later. Much of the summer was spent recovering, repairing and replacing flood-damaged property. The new wave pool and lazy river were eventually opened and were a big hit!
Beech Bend is honored to win it’s first ever Golden Ticket award. Beech Bend Park was also named one of the “Top 5 Friendliest Parks in the World” for the fourth straight year. The Kentucky Rumbler wooden coaster moved up a spot to number 16 in the rankings for all wooden roller coasters in the world in 2010. Ever since it’s opening in 2006, the Kentucky Rumbler has been ranked in the top 20 wooden roller coasters every year.

Beech Bend Park is family owned and operated and strives to be a good value for family fun. The park offers free parking, free sunscreen and free soft drinks along with surprisingly low admission rates. Beech Bend Park will continue to grow and keep customer satisfaction a number one priority!




798 Beech Bend Road, Bowling Green, KY 42101 Phone (270) 781-7634 or beechbend.com

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