Volume 3, No. 2. January 24, 2002
Stan’s plan
For all the forlorn
expressions on the people of Logan, Utah. For all the film footage of high-thrill
rides amid parking lots and industrial landscapes. For himself.
For these reasons and more, Stan Checketts, founder and owner of S&S Power,
Inc., is planning to build a small family amusement park on some of his property.
“I can leave a legacy in the valley,” he said of his hometown. “That
would be a nice thing for S&S to do.”
S&S already has established quite a legacy in Logan, no matter what Checketts
will tell you. But that legacy is a fleeting one. He builds his rides there—towers,
thrust air coasters, bungee-genre rides and a new generation of family thrill
rides—to test and show to industry operators, then the rides disappear
from the Logan landscape, heading for distant parks in far-off lands. Most of
his hometown population—excepting those few employee relations and friends
who get to ride the prototypes—have to travel hundreds of miles to ride
S&S's most famous products.
Checketts wants to build a typical family entertainment center with a go-kart
track, batting cage, miniature golf course, bumper boats and arcade. He also
would put in an infiltration course, a children's obstacle course of the kind
that is gaining popularity at Japanese venues. He would then supplement these
permanent attractions with some of his high-thrill prototypes.
Not only would the rides then be available to the locals, even if for a short
while, it would serve S&S as a proving ground for new products and provide
a bona fide park atmosphere for sales calls and videos. “Every time I design
some new wild ride, I’d put it there rather than set it in some parking
lot, and get reports from real people who would pay to do it," Checketts
said. "We’d get some really good reports and videos and better numbers
to give park owners on how the rides were received.”
Checketts already has 28 acres (11.3 hectares) of land set aside for the project,
but he wants to get it annexed by the city before proceeding. Then he could
get city water and sewage to the site and have it zoned to fit his needs, with
no height restrictions. “I don’t like limits,” said the man who
is developing a 350-foot-tall (106-meter) freefall drop tower and a drag racer
that will go from 0 to 115 mph (185 kph) in less than 2 seconds. The process
for getting annexation and zoning could take several months depending on how
much opposition he gets from what some residents in Logan call the “CAVE
people” (Citizens Against Virtually Everything).
Once he gets the green light, Checketts said he would proceed cautiously. Though
ancillary to his current manufacturing operation, he wants the new park to be
economically viable. “This valley hasn’t got anything like that, but
we’re not large enough. We’ve only got 100,000 people here, but we’d
draw out of Wyoming and Idaho.” And he’d be sure to get a lot of repeat
visits from locals.
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