New owner, look for Fun Park
The Cache Valley Fun Park has appointed new management and begun renovations to improve facilities.
“It’s a different type of customer service,” said newly-appointed general manager BreAnn Skivy of the staff’s goals. “We get to play and have a good time with them. It’s not just get them in, get them out and get them on with their thing. That attitude is the number one reason we’re revamping.”
With the variety of entertainment options, revamping is exactly what owner Terry Johnson was looking for.
“We needed fresh blood,” Johnson said. “I believe the success of a place like this is that they have to have fun with the kids. When it gets to where you’re grinding down to the point that it’s a job, we’ve gone astray.”
Johnson appointed Skivy, a 22-year-old student with a dual major in elementary education and early childhood education, as the new general management. He said he hired her for her bubbly personality that electrifies everyone around her.
Along with new management, renovations are being made to improve the facility over the next several months in preparation for the company’s 15th anniversary. Johnson and Skivy agreed while the physical changes will have a positive impact, the real difference will be made by the employees and their role in creating a positive atmosphere.
“We’re getting back to a personal feel,” Skivy said. “We’re a commodity in Cache Valley. There’s nobody else that has what we have entertainment-wise. Logan Lanes with bowling, but that’s it. Everything else, we don’t have competition and that’s something we need to take one and run with.”
Some of those forms of entertainment include laser tag, country swing dancing and roller skating, but activities also include arcade games, a soft-play facility, bowling, billiards and zumba.
Costs range from $2.50 for five minutes of laser tag to $6 per hour for a pool table. Andrea Choate of Hyde Park said she comes to the Fun Park because it’s an inexpensive way to entertain her three kids, especially during the winter months.
“We like the fun park because it’s cheap,” Choate said. “It’s cheaper than the Jump Zone. It’s cheaper than driving to a hot springs. It’s cheaper and easier to get to is the main thing. I pay for the soft play and my kids earn money for the arcade.”
Group rates are also available when set up in advance for business, church or other groups, but Skivy said the staff takes extra pride in working with school groups.
“We really accommodate to schools and do our best with Title One,” Skivy said. “It gets to our key demographics. They go back to mom and dad and say ‘It was so much fun,’ and then we get the whole families coming in. We make schools happy.”
Johnson said they’ve worked with schools in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming to provide coupons and discounts, but they’ve put emphasis into USU as well.
“The university is a critical part,” Johnson said. “For years we’ve been the facility they bring people to when they’re recruiting. When they have their parties they come here and we show them a good time.”
Coupons for bowling and roller skating appear each semester in the campus coupon book, and many students take advantage of Tuesdays when all activities cost $2.
The Fun Park also works closely with the USU swing club in conjunction with country swing nights on Mondays and Wednesdays, offering the entire facility for its use. Special offers are posted via the Fun Park’s social media pages on Facebook and Twitter, and students and residents are encouraged to ask what discounts are available when they go.
“It’s not just to bring in money,” Skivy said. “It’s to remind the community that we’re here for you. It’s a locally owned business. We’re like a mini Disneyland to the kids of Cache Valley. We offer that simplistic, good, clean fun that is not anywhere else. It brings families together.”
More information can be found online at http://www.cachevalleyfunpark.com.
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @CurtisLundstrom