Validity of adventure park lease in question
Saturday, 20 January 2007
By JIM DINO
jimdino@standardspeaker.com
The Paragon Adventure Park, where people can legally drive all-terrain vehicles off-road, is still in operation – despite a dispute over the validity of its lease.
Kyle Knosp, who has operated the nine-year-old park for the last three years with his wife, Stephanie, contends the lease he has for the land is valid.
“I have a 25-year lease,” Knosp said. “I bought the park and the lease in good faith.”
But Knosp said Butler Enterprises owns the 4,200 acres the park sits on and wants to sell the land to a third party.
“Obviously, they have someone who has another use for the land,” Knosp said.
Knosp said the lease is now in litigation in Luzerne County Court.
“I always tried to run an honest business,” Knosp said. “I thought we did well for the community, helping the local economy by the people we bring in.”
On weekends, the park attracts off-road enthusiasts from out of the area.
“Our average customer is from two and a half hours away,” Knosp said. “We used to get people maybe once a month. With gas prices the way they are, we get people for, maybe, two days every two weeks. But they stay over (in a local hotel). Most of our customers are from out of the area.”
Aside from providing a place where enthusiasts can ride, Paragon also offers its expertise to provide corporate training for off-road driving, especially to auto dealers who sell 4X4 and SUVs.
“We trained Toyota to drive their new FJ Cruiser,” Knosp said. “We ever built a special course for them. In that instance, we trained corporate and dealer staffs from the northeast and Baltimore regions. We do corporate training, but most of the time, it’s for the dealer level, so they know what their vehicles can do.”
After the previous owner started the park without first obtaining the necessary permits, Knosp has run the park with stringent rules.
Paragon offers training in how to properly ride off-road vehicles.
Knosp said that although ATVs and other off-road vehicles are driven illegally all over the area, they are not driven illegally at Paragon.
“Most people think we’re a bunch of yahoos running through the woods. A lot of riders don’t want to ride with helmets, and want to ride where they won’t get caught.
“But we have rules we strictly enforce. We want to make Paragon family-oriented. We are trying to make it a vacation destination where people will stay, for instance, at Eagle Rock, and golf and drive off-road.”
Paragon has rules riders must abide by if they want to ride on park trails.
“We require a communication device – a CB (Citizens’ Band) radio or a cell phone,” Knosp said. “We monitor a CB channel and a cell phone in the office. We make sure nobody rides by themselves.”
Once a month, Paragon personnel – four full-time people and some part-timers – offer group rides in which people who have no one to ride with can ride with others.
“We don’t allow alcohol,” Knosp said. “We conduct vehicle inspections before they ride.”
Paragon personnel also offer instruction in driving.
“We instruct riders what to do in the case of a rollover,” he said. “We show them the way to get someone safely out of the woods who’s been hurt. We also offer driver instruction.”
Knosp said Paragon offers trails for all types of vehicles.
“We have novice trails and boulder-strewn trails, which are more advanced,” Knosp said. “Those trails are meant for ATVs. We also have rock crawling trails, which are meant for SUVs and 4X4s. The single-track trails are meant for motorbikes and mountain bikes.”
Paragon is open year-round, but Knosp admits it slows down in the winter months of January, February and March.
The park is open Monday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The telephone number is 384-0550.
On the Net:
www.paragonap.com
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