After death, insurance costs cause Cumberland water park to close

Fantasy Lake owner Marjorie Turner said Friday that business fell off last summer after Gray's death, and her insurance has skyrocketed since then. She said she hasn't been able to find an insurer that would provide coverage at a price she could afford.

"It's hard for someone who has a business like this, or small business, if you do have an incident, that your insurance or the rates are raised or whatever," Hope Mills Mayor Jackie Warner said. "It's tough, and I understand completely."

Brian Magembe and Alexander Jacquart, who live down the street from Fantasy Lake, were stunned to learn the water park would be closed this year.

"I wish it would stay open," Jacquart said. "I actually miss the beach. I'm from, like, a beach town. We lived just a few blocks from the beach, and this is almost just like that."

"The beautiful thing is, you got to remember, a lot of people got to drive all the way out, sometimes 45 minutes to an hour" to visit the water park, Magembe said. "Me, I have the luxury of waking up, seeing if it's not too busy, you know, going down there and watch the kids."

Turner, who has owned Fantasy Lake for 15 years, said she hopes to reopen in sometime in the future.

For now, however, the lake is drained, the water slides sit empty and the rope swings are still.

"There's not another place to go like this that is close by," Warner said, bemoaning the loss – even if temporary – of an attraction that has brought people to Hope Mills since the 1950s.