BRISTOL, Conn. -- EWN: What should people do to prepare to have a fun day at your theme park?
Jerry Brick: Do some research online, first of all, on our Web site. Study the parks so they know where everything is in the park. And then when they get to the park, look at our height requirements for the rides. Where are those rides located on our park map? They also want to make sure that if the family gets separated that they have a meeting place and they can easily identify that in the park.

EWN: Why is it important to have a meeting place?
Jerry Brick: There are a lot of people in the park at times, and when the families get separated, you know, they can get lost. It can seem like a big place for smaller children, and if they have an identifiable place, like a tall structure or wherever it may be, that way they can easily identify in the park and get to that spot.

EWN: What’s the biggest mistake people make when they come to the park?
Jerry Brick: I think a lot of times they don't plan ahead of time, and they don't plan for how many people can actually be here, and they don't have meeting spots, and you know, as soon as they walk in, they don't know, they haven't looked at a map, and they just really run free. They should really study what they're going to do for the day and plan it out. They want to make sure they have a fun day, so they do that by doing research ahead of time.

EWN: And if they don't plan ahead?
Jerry Brick: Sometimes they miss some of the rides that we have or some of the attractions, and it becomes real difficult for them to see what's in the park and what we have to offer.

EWN: What do you recommend for footwear in the park?
Jerry Brick: When they come into the park, shoes and shirt are required in the park, except when they're in our water park, and they want to have comfortable shoes. I always say sneakers because that way they can travel all around the park and make sure that their feet are not bothering them by the end of the day, and it's much better than having sandals on inside the park.

EWN: Let’s talk about rides. What’s the first thing people -- adults and kids -- need to do as they prepare to go on a ride.
Jerry Brick: They should check our fun and safety signs that are listed on the outside of our rides. It talks about if they have pre-existing conditions, like heart problems or back problems or if they may be pregnant or something, that ride may not be suitable for them. It'll also give them the height requirement, and it'll tell them what kind of forces to expect on the ride.

EWN: What’s the worst thing a person could do as they get on a ride?
Jerry Brick: The worst thing they could do if they have a pre-existing condition is to go on a ride that will put forces on the body that they're not used to, and it's not good for them to do that.

EWN: So they should take those instructions seriously?
Jerry Brick: They should take it seriously. As I like to tell a lot of people, they are machines and attractions, not just rides. They do have forces that go along with them.

EWN: We’ve seen the stories about those rare occasions where rides at amusement parks break down or have to be stopped while people are on them. It doesn’t happen often, but that’s another reason people should be mindful of their limitations, right?
Jerry Brick: All rides have safeties on them and there will be some times where a ride may have to stop at a certain point, and if it does and we have to take people off the ride, they need to be in good condition to help themselves get off of that ride safely.

EWN: What is the biggest health issue you deal with at the park?
Jerry Brick: On a hot day in the summer? Probably heat exhaustion. We get a lot of people -- not just guests, we have team members as well -- that are not properly hydrating themselves. They're not eating correctly. And then they get out in that hot sun all day, and it's probably the worst thing for them.

EWN: So should people be drinking water or other beverages before they get to the park?
Jerry Brick: They should definitely think about it before they leave home. They should think about it throughout the day as they go through the park. Am I getting enough water? Am I getting enough food into my body, nutrients into my body to make sure that I can stay together with this heat?

EWN: OK, back to the rides. What do you do if you have a child who gets on a ride and is fine, but then starts freaking out once the ride gets underway? Does that happen?
Jerry Brick: We do get that. We get little kids that get scared during a ride. And some rides we can stop. And we tell them, “You know, if you want us to stop please make sure you shout, and if we can hear you above the noise we'll get the ride stopped.” But the biggest thing is you want to keep your child calm and relaxed and reassure them that everything is OK, that it's just a ride and that at the end of the ride we'll make sure we get them off.

EWN: What’s the worst thing a parent could do if their child is upset on a ride?
Jerry Brick: Panic. You don't want your child to squirm or try to squirm out of their seat or their restraint when they're, when they're panicked about something. Because it's not a situation where they're in danger, they're just on a ride, and if they haven't experienced forces like that before, they shouldn't try to get themselves out of the restraint that they're in. Another thing, if your child is a little hesitant to go on a ride, don't force your child to go on the ride. Don't expect them to like the same things that you do. It's up to each individual child, and one may like it and one may not. It does go back to people educating themselves about what the ride does, what kind of forces will get you on the ride, so you need to really read up on the ride at our fun and safety signs before you get on it and make sure that you know what you're getting into.

EWN: Generally, what’s the first thing a person should do when they get on a ride?
Jerry Brick: When you get on a ride, the first thing you want to do is listen to the operator's instructions. The operator will tell you everything about the ride. They'll tell you exactly how to sit in a ride. We have some rides where we ask them to not adjust their harnesses. We will adjust their restraints for them. Then we have other ones where we ask them to pull the restraints down and we come through and check them. All restraints are checked every single morning on all of our attractions by our maintenance personnel, so we do go through it throughout the day, every day. And then what we do is ask our guests just to really listen to our operator's instructions before the ride starts.

EWN: Do you find that some people just tune out to the instructions on the rides?
Jerry Brick: It's not so much that they tune out to the instructions. Sometimes people become complacent. They've ridden the ride many, many times. I think it's important to listen to the ride operator every single time when the ride goes. You have to listen to what they say, the instructions they give you. And the same things with the warnings on the rides themselves. You have to pay attention to what's on there and know if your body can take those types of forces or not.

EWN: Let’s talk roller coasters. What do you do when you get on a roller coaster?
Jerry Brick: The most important thing on a roller coaster: make sure I read the instructions at the main entrance to the ride. I go down to the ride and make sure I take out all loose articles. And then, when I sit down, they tell me exactly how to put my seatbelt on and look at my restraint -- tighten my restraints -- and then what happens, the ride operator will come through, check your restraints. And if they have not checked your restraints, you have to let somebody know about that so we can go back, check them again and make sure you enjoy your ride when you're out there.

EWN: You had mentioned the problems that arise when people bring their “stuff” on the rides with them.
Jerry Brick: I think if a guest goes onto an attraction, what we try to do is get them to put their articles in bins. We have lockers here. We try to make sure they go on rides without anything in their pockets. But say a guest does drop something on a ride. What we will do is tell them to leave it there. We will get maintenance personnel to look for it because they can't go into an area where a ride operates. It really has to be a maintenance person that does that. And there are some attractions, like on our Sky Ride or our Boulder Dash that's over almost a mile long. I tell them (guests) if they lose it on the mountain, it's gone. I can't find it. So we really try to get them to put their articles in a bin or into a locker before riding the ride.

EWN: Lake Compounce has a big water park. What should people know when it comes to visiting the water park?
Jerry Brick: When they're getting ready to go to the water park, the first thing is it's hot out. Kids are going to be in bathing suits. They really need to have sunscreen on. They need to have water shoes. We do have life vests available. Some people like to bring their life vests from home, and all I tell them is they have to be U.S. Coast Guard approved in order to be used in the park. They have to make sure they know where their children are at all times, especially in the water park. On a hot day, it gets very busy over there. So what we try to do is make sure that we have adequate staff in terms of security and lifeguards to help look for lost children, but that's one of the things in the water park: parents may get distracted for a second, they turn around and their kid's gone for a second. We help them find them all the time. It's something we go through every day, but it's making sure that they know where the kids are at all times and that they have proper life vests, and if kids know how to swim or not swim that they're with them in the appropriate attractions.

EWN: Parents need to know it’s their responsibility to watch their own children, right?
Jerry Brick: We have staff in our water park, and I think it is important for parents to take responsibility and work with their children to make sure that they're with the children at all times in the water park.

EWN: What do you do if your child suddenly disappears anywhere in the park?
Jerry Brick: The first thing you should do if you lose your child is to notify somebody that works in the park, whether it's myself or security or a lifeguard -- whoever you go by first -- and I would notify them right away because we have procedures in place, and those procedures are, we call it out over the radio, we look for them, we look for the child. And we have to stay with the parent as well. You know, sometimes parents get excited. They run. They take off looking for their child. We really try to stay with them so that way, when we're looking for the child, when we find the child, we can easily find the parent again. The worst thing the parent can do is take off after they give us a description, and then we find the child but we don't have the parent.

EWN: Do you lock down the park if a child disappears?
Jerry Brick: What happens with younger children, what we do, is ... if younger children are lost, what we'll do is we put security at our gates. We bring security to our parking lot. And what we do is monitor anyone going out the gate at that point. And then what we do is a park-wide search.

EWN: And someone stays with the parents?
Jerry Brick: You try to stay with the parents, and you try to get as many details as you can. What kind of shoes they're wearing, the height, the weight. Do they have green eyes? Do they have blue eyes? What exactly were they wearing last for a swimsuit or a T-shirt and shorts? You know, all of those things help. And we really need to get all that information to make sure that we can find that child quickly.

EWN: Is it a good idea to maybe take a family picture upon arrival at the park? That might help if a child goes missing.
Jerry Brick: If people have digital cameras with recent pictures, that always works really well to do that.

EWN: We happen to be here on a stormy day. How do you deal with lightning at the park?
Jerry Brick: What we do here is we have a lightning detection system in the park. We monitor all storms daily. Even if it's nice out I always have the weather up first thing. We watch it throughout the day. But as the storms approach, what we try to do is we start shutting down a lot of our higher rides and letting our guests know that there's storms in the area. A lot of times we do have a lot of inside areas for our guests to go to. But there will be a lot of guests that I'll tell at the main gate go out. Get yourself something to eat and come on back in about a half-an-hour. I think it'll be done at that point. And you can enjoy yourself for the rest of the day in the park. But we do have a lot of indoor areas that we push our guests to.