Growth Spurt has Knott’s Looking for About 1,000 New Employees

Speaking of Knott’s, the Buena Park tourist attraction is doing its part to contribute to the service-job bounty in north Orange County, a bonanza spurred mainly by expansions at Disneyland and the Anaheim Convention Center.

Knott’s, in the middle of its own big growth spurt, will hire more than 1,000 attraction employees, lifeguards, parking attendants and hotel, restaurant and merchandising workers as it gears up for summer. It’s holding job fairs March 18 in Buena Park and April 8 in Chula Vista south of San Diego.

Chula Vista is where Knott’s parent Cedar Fair recently purchased White Water Canyon, a Western-themed water park that had plunged into bankruptcy proceedings. Made over with a beach motif and renamed Soak City USA, the park is scheduled to reopen under Knott’s management in early May.

Knott’s hopes to open its latest thrill ride, Perilous Plunge, in late May or early June. Another Soak City USA water park, being built beside the existing amusement park, will debut in mid-June if construction stays on schedule.

The recent spate of bad weather has slowed things down at Knott’s. “If we continue to cycle two days off and three days on, that’s not going to help,” spokesman Ochsner said. So far, he said, it looks as though the deadlines can be met.

Some in Southern California’s amusement industry are hunkering down for a slow season, figuring patrons will delay their visits until 2001, when Walt Disney Co. opens its new California Adventure park in Anaheim. But not Knott’s, at least according to Ochsner. “We intend to have a great year despite those who suggest this is a delayed-visit year,” he said.