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It was a mechanical part of the carousel that failed, and so the DEP (who paid for the park and carousel and who runs the water treatment plant underneath the park) had to work out the repairs with Marvin from Fabricon (the company that made all the mechanical parts of the carousel). All winter there were disagreements between them about what was wrong with the carousel and how to fix it and make it safe to ride. It is amazing how long this stuff takes--months and months.

Summer came, and finally the carousel was fixed, and ready to be tested. So that no humans would be in danger, the carousel would be tested with thick, black plastic bags filled with heavy sand. The bags were hung over each animal to imitate the weight of a rider, or piled next to the animal to imitate a parent holding on to a little kid.

But the DEP and Marvin had different ideas of how to test the carousel and couldn't agree. We were so sad that we can't even describe it to you because we thought the carousel would be reopening soon.

Fall came, and then winter. We all agreed to get an independent expert who would make up a fair test to see if the carousel was truly fixed and safe. We called Brian King, an engineer who goes all over the world inspecting amusement park rides (what a job!). Brian had helped write the rules for amusement park ride safety that all amusement parks in the USA must follow, so he is really an authority.

We also hired a good, experienced lawyer to help us. Karen Shatzkin helped keep everyone focussed on getting the job done, and solved many problems. Plus, when Karen spoke, the DEP and Marvin paid attention!

It took a long time for Brian to find out all about the carousel--how it was made and what it was made of and how many people were meant to ride it--stuff like that. Finally, in April 1999, Brian flew from Chicago to New York just to help us with the tests. Everyone was there: the regional head of the State Parks, the head of the Park, other people from the park, Marvin, three engineers from the DEP, plus Karen and us. Brian had created several different tests that the carousel needed to pass to show that it could run with people of different sizes riding in different ways.

On went the sandbags, and the carousel was run three times--it passed the test. Then the sandbags were moved around to different positions and the carousel was run again, three times. Each time the carousel passed a test, the sandbags were moved to a new arrangement. Everyone was very tense until the carousel passed the last test. At last--almost two years after the dedication! Tears were shed (not for the first time, but this time they were happy tears).

It took weeks to take care of all the paperwork that needed to be done so that the DEP could formally turn over the ownership of the carousel to the Park. And the carousel was pretty dirty and scratched up from all those sandbags being thrown around on it. So we fixed all the scratches and did most of the paperwork, and on Fourth of July weekend, the carousel finally reopened!