Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / The historic Leap the Dips roller coaster is at the center of the latest lawsuit between the Lakemont Partnership and the Blair County commissioners.

Blair County President Judge Wade Kagarise Monday issued a six-month injunction barring the Lakemont Partnership from selling the historic Leap-The-Dips roller coaster in connection with a lawsuit the county filed against the partnership Dec. 9.

Kagarise initially issued an injunction Thursday against the sale, pending a hearing scheduled for today to hear arguments from each side, but when the judge learned that the partnership had “no immediate plans” to sell – and given that “the parties desire to work together to attempt to reach an agreement” – he issued the longer injunction, according to his order.

The order doesn’t negate “any rights, claims or defenses” previously held by either party – so if there is no resolution or the injunction hasn’t been extended after six months, the county can refile its motion to enjoin, Kagarise wrote.

The county sought the injunction upon expiration of a 60-day period during which it could have exercised an option to buy the coaster from the partnership – a period that began upon expiration of the partnership’s responsibility to maintain and preserve the coaster, if such maintenance and preservation proved financially unfeasible, as outlined in a 2006 agreement between the parties that doesn’t expire until 2066.

The county cannot afford to buy the coaster, Kessling said.

But the partnership has forfeited its right to sell the coaster for having violated the lease by “failing to properly preserve and maintain (the coaster) through Oct. 8 (of this year)”; failing to pay “requisite percentage rent” for the park; failing to “open their books and records to the county”; and failing to operate the area within the fence line at Lakemont as a “public park” during the summers of 2024 and 2025, according to the county suit.

That county suit includes “numerous baseless allegations and attacks,” and is a “retaliatory act” in response to a partnership lawsuit in August that asked the court for “intervention and guidance,” stated partnership President Andrea Cohen, who is named personally in the county suit, in an email sent to the Mirror last week.

The county suit besmirches the partnership’s reputation and shows an unfair disregard for her family’s history of community philanthropy, wrote Cohen, who is the daughter of the late Don Devorris, namesake for the Devorris Downtown Center of Penn State Altoona and the Devorris Center for Business Development, home of the Altoona Blair County Development Corporation.

Cohen was unavailable to comment Tuesday evening on the extension of the injunction, she stated in a text.

Blair County Commissioners Chairman Dave Kessling didn’t sound optimistic Tuesday that the additional six months would lead to a breakthrough, given that the parties have talked several times in the previous year without success.

The partnership has been “unwilling and unwavering” on crucial points, and if there isn’t a breakthrough, it will be up to the court, Kessling said.

“If a judge says they can sell it, it’s out of our hands,” he said.

“If (however, the partnership) is in breach (of the contract), it’s a whole new ballgame,” he said. “It’s ours again.”

The county has received calls from many coaster enthusiasts – from the area, from across Pennsylvania and nationally – saying “you can’t let it go,” Kessling said.

Under its long-term lease with the county, the partnership controls the entire park grounds, and it earns income from the ballpark, the office “village,” The Casino and Galactic Ice, according to Kessling.

It doesn’t earn a profit from the area of the former amusement park “inside the fence,” however – and historically, that area has never been a profit center, according to Kessling.

The county has proposed a deal to the partnership under which the county would take back control of the area inside the fence in exchange for something Kessling declined to specify, Kessling said.

“I thought they would jump all over that, but they said ‘no,'” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

It’s a matter of money, he said.

The county would like the opportunity to accommodate an outside group that has proposed to create a sports complex on that site within the fence, he said.

That project would be in the “spirit of a park,” as required by the agreement under which the county owns the park grounds, although such a project would require court approval, Kessling said.

The sports complex proposal is “massive” – an investment of $30 million to $40 million, and provide a venue for baseball, softball, basketball and hockey, both indoors and out, he said.

The sports complex group has conceptual plans and even willing contractors, he said.

The proposed project would create “a huge economic boom,” he said.

The location is excellent, given the nearby I-99 interchange, he said.

“(But) the talks have never gone anywhere,” he said. “It comes down to ‘pay me, pay me.'”

There is also a potential issue with parking, as the sports complex group would need to have an arrangement with the partnership for the use of the parking spaces – including the garage – that the partnership controls at Lakemont, Kessling said.

The group doesn’t appear to be willing to become partners itself with the Lakemont Partnership, he said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.