PONDEROSA PARK Concerts return to pavilion

The first show is scheduled for Sunday.
& lt;a href=mailto:skolnick@vindy.com & gt;By DAVID SKOLNICK & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
SALEM -- Tired of concerts that never materialized promoted by outsiders who hurt the reputation of the facility, about 100 members of Ponderosa Park have pooled together their money and resources to put on three country music shows.
"We were tired of people coming in and taking advantage of us and making fools of us," said Georgia Davis, a park member and chairwoman of Campers Country Production, which will promote the three shows. "We got tired of getting a bad name from the general public, so we took it upon ourselves to do something about it."
The 150-acre campground and music park on Salem-Warren Road in Goshen Township, just north of Salem, held country music concerts throughout the summer season for about 30 years.
Declared bankruptcy
The concerts stopped in 1996. In 2000, the park declared bankruptcy, and has not yet emerged from it. There have been several attempts to bring concerts back to the park in recent years by outside promoters, but the events never materialized.
The last person who attempted to promote concerts at Ponderosa was sentenced in June to 30 months in prison for passing bad checks, misuse of a credit card, and theft related to defrauding people who purchased tickets to concerts that were never held.
Davis said it's different this time.
Most important, these shows are guaranteed; something that previous promoters didn't do, she said. The three country singers performing at Sunday's concert have already been paid, Davis said.
"We'll pay the other acts in advance as well," she said. "We chose to do that as a group. The stars didn't ask. We did it so we could get the trust back in this park."
Davis declined to say how much money the park members put up for the concerts and to hire a sound company.
None of the members of Campers Country Production has concert-promoting experience, Davis said.
"But that isn't a problem because we've received a tremendous amount of help from agents and other people who want to see concerts return to the park," she said.
In good shape
Although it's been years since the concert pavilion, which holds about 5,000 people, has been used, it's in good shape, Davis said.
"We made very little improvements to the stage area," she said. "Most of it was cleaning it up. The cleanup was the worst. No major repairs were needed."
& lt;a href=mailto:skolnick@vindy.com & gt;skolnick@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;