Midwest amusement park pays off creditors

Shawano Leader Reporter/February 5, 2006
By Tim Ryan

Just days before it was scheduled to be sold off due to delinquent debts, Midwest Amusement Park saved itself from foreclosure Thursday by paying off its creditors.

Ronald Metzler, an attorney for Northeast Asphalt, Inc. of Green Bay, said his client and two other creditors who had liens against the property were paid on Thursday.

Midwest was ordered to pay $380,817 to Northeast for work done on the park’s USA International Raceway. The judgment also entitled Northeast to a construction lien foreclosure.

A Shawano County Sheriff’s Department sale of the property, at W5901 County Road BE in the Town of Wescott, had been scheduled for this Wednesday.

Midwest Amusement Park and USA International Raceway are subsidiaries of the R.C. Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology. SIST and its subsidiaries have purchased nearly $12 million worth of property in the area with intentions of supporting a future international boarding school in the Town of Wescott.

A closed hearing before a court commissioner had been scheduled for last Thursday at which SIST and Midwest Amusement Park would have been required to open its financial records to its creditors. The debts were paid that day, making the hearing unnecessary.

"My client is very relieved," Metzler said, adding that the collection effort that has dragged on for over a year had been very stressful for Northeast.

The civil suit that led to the judgment was actually filed in February by Heyrman Construction Co., of Green Bay, over payment due for work done at the race track. Heyrman won a construction lien against Midwest Amusement Park in the amount of $74,421.

In April, a construction lien in the amount of $75,086 was filed against Midwest Amusement Park by Fencing Plus, of Sheldon, Wis.

Metzler said it was his understanding that those liens have also been satisfied.

The property was purchased in June 2003 from Water and Wheels Amusement Park, LLC, at a cost of $350,000. It was purchased on a land contract that has since been satisfied.

The racetrack opened in July 2004. Among the events hosted there have been a North America Can-Am Championship motorcycle racing event in June of last year and an American Motorcycle Association race in July.

The track put out a schedule of events for 2006 in early January.