Trimper's featured on Fox TV show
If you're flipping through the channels Monday night and see a familiar carousel or boardwalk when going by the Fox Business Network, it's exactly what you think.
Ocean City boardwalk mainstay Trimper's Rides is hitting national airwaves, as it will be the subject of an episode of the station's "Strange Inheritance", airing at 9 p.m.
The show focuses on people who have inherited unusual items and have been faced with the question of what to do with them. Host Jamie Colby traveled to 25 states and Canada to tell 26 stories for the show's first season.
The Ocean City amusement park has been in the Trimper family since it was built in 1900.
"We're all going to inherit something or leave something some day," Colby said. "It's been a good reminder for people to plan, to talk about what their wishes are. A lot of these families said we wish we would have this conversation before we were left so we knew what to do with it."
The episode will focus on a tax issue the amusement park faced about a decade ago. The land the park was on faced a significant tax hike as it was being classified as space for condominiums, which would have threatened the park's operations.
As amusement park operations manager Brooks Trimper put it, the family was being taxed for what they could use the property for, not what they were using it for. The rates were ultimately lowered to previous levels, he said.
Trimper said he and his family are looking forward to seeing how the story is told on television. Not known to be much of a public speaker, Doug Trimper — Brooks's father — was very active in the interview process, Brooks said.
"We're excited about it, but we have no idea what it's going to be," he said.
Colby said the episode featuring Trimper's is among her favorites.
"I'm very passionate about this story. I feel like Doug could have definitely cashed in and sold the property so many times," she said. "He's so committed, as his family has been, to providing these rides and making sure the carousel continues to spin at a price that families could afford."
If, perchance, you missed the Monday night showing, a rerun of the episode is expected to air Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. on Fox Business Network, Colby said.
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