Recent moves to relocate Bell's Amusement Park from it's former home at the Tulsa County Fairgrounds to Wagoner County near Coweta (via various storage yards en route) has taken its twists and turns.
With rent on the county land they'd occupied since 1951in arrears and their long-term viability in question, the Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority chose not to renew the Bell's lease in 2006. This generated much grumbling both by the Bell family and the public at large. Allegations of skullduggery by Murphy Attractions (which runs the "Big Splash" water park nearby) were hinted at but never actually substantiated.
In 2008, Sally Bell (Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Bell's) went on to challenge Randi Miller for her seat on the County Commission. The Bell family held Miller responsible for the loss of their lease. "Randi Miller was the one who led the charge," the Tulsa World quoted Sally Bell in the run-up to the election. Bell defeated Miller in the primary, but ultimately lost to Karen Keith, a long-time Tulsa newswoman. Sally Bell now is the Chair of the Tulsa County GOP, where she has in the past sported a vehemently "anti-tax" posture.
My personal history with Bell's Amusement Park evokes some bitter-sweet memories. A childhood friend managed to get me on at Bell's in the late 70s. I ran the arguably third coolest ride at the park, the "Log Flume", for maybe a month or two.
Working for Bell's was a trial and a tribulation. I suppose the good parts were the generally low standards and the free rides (if nobody was watching). They would hire just about anybody it seemed (hey, I got hired, right?), I got 20 minutes of training in ride operation the day I started, "pinch-hitters" were standard employee equipment (ahhh, those fabulous 70s!) and I got to work alongside a heroin-addict for the first time (which greatly broadened my horizons). A more motley group of post-juvenile delinquents I have never had the questionable honor of serving with.
On the down-side, we had to wear really dopey sailor-suits, polyester abominations with bell-bottoms, all in a red/white/blue trim motif. Those were ghastly! I think we worked for like $2 an hour except when the Fair was in session, when our pay went up by ten cents. If your ride didn't have a line of customers waiting in front of it, one of the management (Robby?) would ride up in a golf-cart and shout "Hey, YOU! You are off the clock!", and clock you out via walkie-talkie. Of course you were expected to just hang around, unpaid of course, until a line formed again and you got radioed back on the clock.
Ahhh, the humiliations of 'first jobs'!
So now the Bells are hoping to set up shop in the next county and the on-again, off-again vote for a sales tax increase to finance infrastructure for the new park location has elicited the usual gruff grumblings in the press from the Bell family at the uncertainty of their next municipal hand-out. I'd advise the Bells to keep things really positive, at least until after the vote gets held and all the papers get signed: you wouldn't want to scare off the latest marks, would you?
Good luck, Bell's, with your new home, and good luck Wagoner County! I'm sure it will be a match made in, well... somewhere, eventually!
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