Unit 9200...

A $50-a-head celebration to mark Playland Amusement Park's 75th anniversary tomorrow has been canceled after 8,000 invitations drew only 60 responses.

"We thought this was a good idea," Susan Tolchin, chief adviser to County Executive Andrew Spano, said about the event, which was to include unlimited rides on the Dragon Coaster and several other rides, along with cocktails, a buffet barbecue, a performance by the Westchester Philharmonic and $20 worth of coupons good for another visit to the landmark park.

"We thought people might want to celebrate the 75th anniversary," Tolchin said. "They didn't."

The county sent invitations to 8,000 people, including all 4,679 county employees. The 60 who responded fell 440 short of the number needed to make the event work, Tolchin said.

The county Civil Service Employees Association said Spano canceled the event after the union threatened to picket it and issued a press release calling the cancellation "a big win for Unit 9200 and our contact negotiations!!!"

Several members of the union, which has been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2001, returned their invitations with notes saying the price of admission was "especially insulting in light of the county's contract offer." The union said the county has offered the workers a four-year contract with annual salary increases ranging from zero to 4 percent.

"We had to go to the Park Department to get a permit, and when they answered us, it was that the event was canceled," said Karen Pecora, first vice president of the union. "We believe that we were partially responsible for that."

Tolchin said the decision to cancel the event was purely economic.

Spano has had better luck throwing other parties.

A fund-raiser for his campaign organization at the Hilton Rye Town on April 30 sold 750 tickets. Most were snatched up by contractors, consultants and top county employees, who paid $300 a head but got only dinner and drinks.

"They love Andy Spano," Tolchin said when asked why the campaign event drew nearly 13 times the response at six times the price of the Playland celebration — which the county was billing as "the party of a lifetime" — even without the roller coaster rides and the coupon books. "They want to see good government continue. They don't equate the two (events)."

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