Water park to sell discount passes
CoCo Key Water Resort has gotten the green light from the Danvers Board of Selectmen to sell one-day admission tickets to local residents, but reservations will be required and no walk-in tickets will be sold. Essex County residents will be eligible for a $20 discount when they buy a family four-pack, resort officials said.
"This is something we are doing for the residents of our local area," said Kristin Perry, general manager of CoCo Key, at the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort Hotel on the Danvers/Middleton line.
When CoCo Key opened almost a year ago, admission was to be limited to hotel guests and birthday parties, outings, and groups of 100 or more people.
The Key West theme water park landed in hot water in February with public health officials when it was found to have high chlorine counts. Dozens of local residents reported chemical burns, skin rashes, and other ailments. The park was closed for 10 days. It reopened after new testing equipment was installed, and new methods of reporting chlorine levels were adopted.
The hot tub remains closed. The state Department of Public Health is reviewing a request for a waiver from state regulations that require antivortex covers for drains, which reduce sucking power.
Danvers officials technically only have jurisdiction of a video game arcade, which is located on the Danvers side of the property. CoCo Key agreed to improve security at the arcade after selectmen expressed concern. The arcade now will have a manager at least 21 years old on each shift. Arcade rules will be posted, and a phone connected to the 911 emergency system will be installed at the arcade's desk, Perry said.
Children age 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult in the arcade, which will have no more than 50 games. Visitors will be given colored bracelets so they are clearly identified as being with a group. "We work diligently to ensure the safety of our customers," Perry said.
Ranked in order, they are Beverly, Newburyport, Salem, Gloucester, Peabody, Marblehead, Danvers, Lynn, Rockport and Amesbury. Overall, the region has 2,200 organizations, ranging from art galleries to software firms, employs 17,000 to 20,000 people, and annual sales of $3 billion, with most customers drawn from outside the region, the report said.
The study, prepared by Cambridge-based ConsultEcon and Karl F. Seidman Consulting Services used a broad definition of the "creative economy." Industries include advertising and artists, software and electronic design, historic preservation, and tourism, among others. They include solo entrepreneurs, large businesses, and nonprofits, according to the report released last week.
About 50 percent of the businesses are concentrated in five clusters: design, business and management consulting, engineering/research and development, artists and advertising. "It may surprise people to know that the third largest cluster . . . is engineering/research and development," said Christine Sullivan , executive director of the Enterprise Center. "But creativity and innovation go hand in hand."
An action plan to grow the sector must include efforts to promote the suburbs north of Boston as a hotbed of creativity, and develop a regional approach to promote the sector. The report can be read on-line at enterprisectr.org , ceans.org or salempartnership.org.
The Granite State had an unemployment rate of 3.9 percent in March, almost the same as March 2007, when the rate was 3.8 percent, according to data published last week by the state's Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau.
In addition to helping people struggling to pay household bills, the federal money can also be used to aid food pantries, homeless shelters, meals-on-wheels programs, and other social assistance programs. The United Way of the Greater Seacoast in Portsmouth oversees a local board that distributes the funding. Applications must be e-mailed to Dave Cohen, senior director of community building, at dcohen@uwgs.org.
Kathy McCabe can be reached at kmccabe@globe.com.
