OCEAN CITY — Although some citizens would like to see the city rescue the carousel from the former Wonderland Pier amusement park, Councilman Tony Polcini said it’s time to say goodbye.
Mayor Jay Gillian, who spent most of his life working at and running the amusement park before he closed it in mid-October 2024, concurred. Gillian, who turns 62 this year, said he knows better than anyone the condition the carousel is in and that the cost to rehabilitate would be prohibitive.
Polcini brought up the carousel and 140-foot-tall Ferris wheel at the Oct. 22 City Council meeting, noting he wanted to comment because there has been much social media speculation about the two rides now owned by developer Eustace Mita at the 600 Boardwalk property.
He said it would not be good leadership or a wise decision fiscally for the city to be involved with either ride.
“We all want a piece of history. I grew up at Wonderland, but things change. Maybe it’s time to say goodbye,” he said. As for having the rides donated to the city, he said it wasn’t wise for the city to “put money into fixing them for years and years to come.”
“Hopefully something wonderful will happen at Sixth Street,” he said. “I don’t think it’s responsible for the city to put money into it.”
In Mita’s early proposal to build a 252-room, seven-story hotel above parking on the property, he said he would incorporate the Ferris wheel and century-old carousel into his plans. A few weeks ago, noting deterioration on the back portion of the property and a collapsing wall, he said he would have to tear down the Ferris wheel for safety reasons.
He made no mention of the carousel, which is in the enclosed building fronting the boardwalk. Neither ride has been operational since Wonderland closed.
In June, City Council voted to declare the former Wonderland parcel as “an area in need of rehabilitation,” opening the door for a project there. Council members have said they support recommendations made by the council’s Boardwalk Subcommittee that would allow upscale hotel rooms on the site, but not a hotel of the size Mita has proposed. They are now negotiating with Mita on what they would support there.
Citizens Donna Saber and Marie Crawford spoke in favor of saving the carousel.
Saber pointed out the carousel was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. in 1926 and was marking its 100th anniversary this year. She said there are groups that love carousels and that a building could be constructed to house it if it didn’t stay at 600 Boardwalk. She called it a huge attraction for Ocean City that was lovingly maintained by the mayor.
Crawford agreed. She said it was a shame the developer was not living up to his promise to save the two rides and that merchants were counting on that as part of their support for Mita’s hotel project, that would have included 10 to 12 storefronts.
She pointed out that Seaside Heights refurbished its “ancient” carousel. She added that because the city was talking about spending nearly $8 million for a new terminal building at the airport — a project originally proposed to cost $6 million with half paid by a donation by Leon Grisbaum — “maybe we could talk about the cost of fixing the carousel.”
The city approved a $7.794 million contract at the Oct. 22 meeting for construction of the new terminal building.
Crawford said Mita was allowing the carousel to deteriorate. “It’s being kept in a damp location behind a plywood wall,” she said. “It was in good faith promised, but being left there until it’s not good anymore.”
Gillian spoke at length about the carousel, saying he appreciates all the good memories and love that people have for the carousel. He also explained that he knows “every inch of that ride” and that no one knows it better than him.
He went into detail about all the parts that would need to be replicated, replaced or fixed, talking about tie rods and jumpers and the telescopes that hold the wooden horses, the murals and the mechanics. Gillian said when he redid the chariots on the carousel two years before Wonderland closed, the wood and steel and screws were in poor shape.
He said Mita hasn’t left it to rot because it has been in the same oceanfront environment as long as it was at Wonderland, acknowledging the toll that takes.
“It was a beautiful ride, but it has met its useful life without millions and millions of dollars” to be spent to rebuild it and house it.
He said he’d love to have someone come in with an open checkbook, but even if it could be rebuilt and get running again, the state would never let it open.
“What that ride needs to make it operational in the state of New Jersey, wow,” he said.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
