Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 46

Section Page 4 Star-Telegram I Friday October 31 1997 Plan Six Flags perks Here according to industry estimates is what Six Flags Theme Parks has invested in rides attractions and other significant improvements at its parks since 1992() Six Flags Magic Mountain Valencia Calif Attraction Estimated cost 1992 Flashback (steel coaster) $2 million 1993 Yosemite Sam Sierra Falls (water ride) $2 million 1994 Batman the Ride $8 million 1995 Hurricane Harbor water park added $9 million 1996 None 1997 Superman the Escape $14 million $14 million Six Flags Over Texas Arlington Attraction Estimated cost 1992 Batman Stunt Show re-themed cave ride entry mall remodeled $35 million 1993 Show package $1 million 1 994 Show package $1 million 1995 The Right Stuff $3 million 1996 Runaway Mountain $3 million 1997 Mr Freeze $6 million Total: $175 million Total: $35 million NJ Estimated cost $1 million $8 million $3 million $4 million $5 million $8 million $29 million Six Flags Over Georgia Atlanta Attraction Estimated cost 1992 The Ninja (steel coaster) $22 million 1993 Batman Stunt Show $1 million 1994 Expanded children's area $1 million 1995 The Viper (steel coaster) $2 million 1996 None 1997 Batman the Ride (inverted coaster) $8 million Total: $142 million Six Flags Great Adventure Jackson Attraction 1992 Batman Stunt Show 1993 Batman the Ride 1994 The Right Stuff 1995 Viper (steel looping coaster) 1996 Skull Mountain (an indoor coaster) 1997 The Chiller (high-tech coaster) Six Flags Great America Gurnee Ill Attraction 1992 Batman the Ride 1993 Batman Stunt Show 1994 Space Shuttle America (motion simulator ride) 1995 Viper (wooden coaster) 1 995 Redesigned children's area 1996 Southwest Territory area with four new flat rides Warner Bros Western Stunt Show 1997 Giant Drop (freefall tower ride) Total: Total: railroad conference said the move to send inspectors to Texas was necessary because a team: sent several weeks ago has not eliminated all the problems The federal agency deployed 90 inspectors earlier to monitor Union Pacific operations after a string of crashes in the summer killed seven people Union Pacific said it will guarantee two days of rest to any of 4) the 3500 train or engine employees in Texas work 14 straight days Train crews had been working an unlimited number of days in a row Union Pacific spokesman 'S John Bromley said Fatigue has been cited as a factor in several of the accidents Matthews said he believes that 1 Morgan should ask Union Pacific to divest lines to rivals in Texas and to expand the terminal at Houston "Those are easy fixes to do" he said "In the past the railroads might really raise a stink about that but it is hard for me to imagine with the kind of pounding UP has taken that they would engage in a long protracted fight" The railroad's troubles fol- lowed its $54 billion merger last year with Southern Pacific a' combination approved by the' 1" board despite warnings from customers and government officials who feared price increases and service problems Since the merger some customers have become so infuriated by their problems with the cornpany that they have submitted invoices to UP for damages One firm Montell USA of Wilmington Del sent UP a bill for more than $645000 The congestion has been" blamed on train crew under-staffing and lack of coordination between the two carriers' computer systems This report includes material from The Associated Press Six Flags Astro World Houston Attraction Estimated cost 1992 Adventure Rivers of Texas (river raft ride) $18 million 1993 Batman the Escape $36 million 1993 Standup coaster four new shows $1 million 1994 Show package $1 million 1995 Mayan Mindbender (indoor coaster) $24 million 1996 Batman Forever Water Stunt Spectacular $300000 1997 The Dungeon Drop $3 million Total: WI million Estimated cost $8 million $1 million $3 million $4 million $1 million $55 million 83 million $255 million Six Flags Fiesta Texas San Antonio No comparable record 1996 Six Flags obtained park management contract 1996 The Jokers Revenge (backward steel coaster) The Wagon Wheel 1997 Roadrunner Express (family coaster) show package $3 $3 Six Flags Over Mid-America St Louis Mo Attraction Estimated cost 1992 Re-themed an indoor family boat ride $1 million 1 993 Show package $1 million 1994 Show package $1 million 1995 Batman the Ride $8 million 1996 Re-themed a section of the park to new Warner Bros Back lot $1 million 1997 Mr Freeze new shows re-themed a section of park to DC Comics $7 million Total: $19 million Flags From Page 1 ownership group is suing accusing the management of starving the park of big attractions Six Flags Theme Parks says it has invested appropriately in both parks Much of the disputes center on arcane language in the limited partnership agreements that define each side's duties and rights But customers of the parks are being affected too Yesterday for instance Six Flags Theme Parks confirmed that the Arlington park is holding up next year's season ticket sales because of uncertainty over who will manage the park after Dec 31 The Six Flags Over Texas ownership group is about to hire Premier Parks an Oklahoma City amusement park operator to run the Arlington park As Bugs might say: Eh what's up Doc? The key issue in the Arlington and Georgia disputes is the level of reinvestment particularly in expensive thrill rides in the parks since 1991 the year Time Warner acquired the Six Flags chain Time Warner sold 51 percent of Six Rags Theme Parks to a Boston investment firm in 1994 Industry estimates put the Arlington and Georgia parks at Nos 5 and 6 in the seven-park Six Flags pack in dollars spent on rides attractions and other significant improvements in the past six years This doesn't count Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio which Six Flags Theme Parks began managing in 1996 The Georgia limited partnership argues that Six Flags Theme Parks has ignored the park to keep profits flat and squeeze out better terms on a new management contract Both parks' original management contracts expire Dec 31 although the Georgia partnership and Six Flags Theme Parks reached an agreement in March Both partnerships say Six Flags Theme Parks is focusing on its three parks in California New Jersey and Illinois Ira Belsky an attorney for Six Flags Theme Parks dismissed those allegations but did not elaborate "I see no reason to comment" Belsky said Jack Knox general partner of Six Flags Over Texas Fund Ltd the Dallas limited partnership that owns the Arlington park declined to comment for this article citing the ongoing litigation His group sued three weeks ago in state district court in Fort Worth asking a judge to declare that Six Flags Theme Parks has no legal interest in the Arlington park after Dec 31 Premier sued in Dallas asking for the same thing In an interview last month Knox said the Arlington park's attendance peaked in 1990 the year the $55 million Texas Giant roller coaster opened Six Flags Theme Parks does not discuss attendance figures for its parks The company had planned to install the $6 million Mr Freeze thrill ride this year but technical problems delayed its launch until Source: Industry estimates (1 Expenditures for the same rides may vary depending on factors such as whether the ride was new or used when installed Some rides also come in different variations From Page 1 improve dispatching and order the company to release its customers from any contractual obligations they may have to ship with Union Pacific Board Chairwoman Linda Morgan is expected to announce the board's decision this afternoon Officials at the board said she is not expected to comment on that decision They added that if no decision is made Morgan will release a report on the meeting although that move is widely seen as unlikely "She has to do something in Texas" said Charles Matthews chairman of thk Texas Railroad Commission "You can combine all the problems in all the other states and it won't come close to the size of the problems in Texas" Matthews issued a report Monday showing that UP's problems have cost Texas businesses as much as $400 million in higher freight costs and lost sales Nationwide the cost to business may be at $1 billion according to a study done for the commission at the University of North Texas in Denton Texas has also seen four major rail accidents in the past 90 days two in the past week The latest came Wednesday when two Union Pacific Railroad trains crashed injuring an engineer and blocking traffic on a major rail corridor about 60 miles northwest of Houston In separate developments yesterday the Federal Railroad Administration said it will dispatch 85 inspectors to Texas and Union Pacific said it will guarantee time off for its train and engine employees in the state Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris speaking at a Tickets From Page 1 "This certainly is not the time of year most people buy season passes to an amusement park" Ruben said "But if I'm planning a company function for next year I'd want to make sure I have it on the calendar Merchandise also could be more of a problem because Six Flags-owned parks are stocking up on Time Warner-related merchandise" Six Flags Theme Parks is 49 percent owned by Time Warner the media and entertainment conglomerate that owns properties such as Bugs Bunny The Six Flags parks sell much of that merchandise The Arlington park will close Sunday and reopen Nov 28 for Holiday in the Park festivities Now is the time the park sets ticket prices begins marketing and selling season passes booking corporate events and buying merchandise for next year Even though the dispute is happening in the off-season employees say privately that it is holding the park's operations hostage The Arlington park is owned by at the day-long meeting said the HEDIS participants are providing a model for the state as it prepares to compile "HMO report cards" for release next Sept I The reports were mandated by the most recent Texas Legislature and are being created by the Office of Public Insurance Counsel at the Texas Department of Insurance Teresa Campbell spokeswoman for the counsel in Austin said yesterday the project is still in the preliminary stages She said the reports are likely to include some information gathered on the HEDIS reports as the state attempts to provide comprehensive but comprehendible reports Accurate reports are necessary if health care is to avoid being treated as a commodity in which price is the sole factor said Dr Gene Beed a pediatrician and health care consultant who addressed the meeting Value he said is the right measure because it is a combination of quality and service at a price "Lacking information medicine will become a commodity" he said a development that will mean declines in quality caring and medicine's conscience "When we become we will acutely feel that loss of conscience" he said million million Star-lblegram parks have been treated evenhandedly with some consideration of annual attendance You obviously don't put the biggest attraction in the smallest park Everybody wants to be first in line but that's not always possible" The California and New Jersey parks had higher attendance in 1996 than Six Flags Over Texas according to Amusement Business magazine estimates Batman the Ride is one that the Georgia partnership says it had to beg for Six Flags has installed the $8 million roller coaster at all its company-owned parks except for Astro World in Houston since 1992 Six Flags Theme Parks held the ride hostage saying the Georgia park would not receive it until the partnership agreed to a new management contract the owners say in their lawsuit The coaster opened there this year The Arlington park does not have the ride The coaster one of Six Flags' most popular has boosted attendance at the other parks the Georgia suit says If the ride had been installed in 1992 it would have generated $24 million in additional profit through 1996 the suit says "That Georgia and Texas didn't get Batman the Ride well there may be something there" said Petrel la the analyst "It was definitely the ride a few years ago that was going in a lot of parks I'm surprised they didn't get it" Most HMO members expressed satisfaction with their plans When asked to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 (highest) to 7 (lowest) survey respondents averaged 267 They also seemed to be satisfied with how long HMOs took to approve treatments and to arrange referrals to specialists But Strasser said HMOs should not take too much comfort in those figures In the more than 100 surveys his firm conducted in the past year he said close to 14 percent of HMO members rated services as poor or fair a rating he ranks as "dissatisfied" When it came to rating physicians 21 percent said they were dissatisfied he said Strasser also urged HMOs to poll members on how well the insurers work with physicians to integrate patient care "Patients see the plans as unable to give a straight answer" when patients seek to confirm coverage of a particular treatment he said That tells patients "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" he said and that must be improved before HMOs can expect to boost their satisfaction ratings in an environment that has grown increasingly critical of HMOs Rep Hugo Berlanga who spoke next year "Every study shows that customers come to the park not for theming but for the park experience and thrill rides" Knox said in the interview The Georgia limited partnership in its 8-month-old suit filed in Superior Court of Gwinnett County says it signed a new management agreement this year with Six Flags Theme Parks because it didn't receive a better bid "Time Warner's scheme was successful" says Lamar Mixon the ownership group's attorney "It was able to put in the highest bid but at a level much lower than it would be had it not breached fiduciary duties" Who is right and who is wrong is of course not clear The Six Flags parks in Valencia Calif Jackson NJ and Gurnee Ill have received the most investment in rides attractions and other significant improvements since 1992 All three parks are owned by Six Flags Theme Parks Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia received $35 million in new rides improvements and attractions according to industry estimates The Arlington park got $175 million according to industry estimates Six Flags Theme Parks says it has invested more than $30 million in the Arlington park since 1992 according to court documents Belsky said that of the money Six Flags has invested in Harris Kaiser NYLCare Prudential of sampled membership) 928 100 877 886 227 182 210 247 427 380 384 321 406 700 532 NA 669 676 720 664 Star-lilegram the park during its contract one-third was spent in the past five years He would not discuss the issue further If the Arlington park's ownership group hires Premier the company says it will invest at least $30 million in new rides attractions and improvements for the 1998 and 1999 seasons The group's 200-plus limited partners are voting this month on the agreement According to industry estimates Six Flags Over Texas has not received an attraction valued at more than $35 million since the Texas Giant which was installed before Time Warner purchased Six Flags Theme Parks Larry Petrel la an amusement industry analyst for Lehman Brothers said Six Flags Over Texas "seemed to be pretty thin for quite a long stretch If you don't want to put a lot of cash in a park but want to keep attendance up you put in a new show It's something new you can publicize in tag lines but it doesn't take a lot of capital" But Paul Ruben North American editor of Park World Magazine said the Arlington and Atlanta parks have been treated fairly Ruben visits all of Six Flags' parks nearly every year "I don't see any pattern" Ruben said "Every park can't get Batman the Ride first or second There've been a number of compelling attractions Georgia and Texas received first or second From my observation all the HMO From Page 1 Even better progress was seen among female members ages 21 to 64 receiving Pap smears to detect cervical cancer In 1993 only 53 percent of the women received exams compared with 761 percent last year The survey also includes some new categories such as the percentage of patients who smoke who have been advised to quit About 60 percent of the smokers last year received that advice which is associated with a 30 percent increase in the number of smokers who quit Mother new item was the percentage of children whose ear infections were treated appropriately which is defined as the use of one of two general antibiotics: amoxicillin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole rather than more potent antibiotics that could contribute to a growing problem of drug-resistant bacteria The percentage of patients who were treated with other than the preferred antibiotics ranged from just 105 percent at Kaiser to 431 percent at Prudential a limited partnership of more than 200 investors headed by Dallas businessman Jack Knox Six Flags Theme Parks has managed the Arlington attraction for 28 years Knox has been unhappy with the 4 4 park's direction Belsky said Six Flags Theme Parks does not think the delays caused by the dispute will hurt the 31 park Knox could not be reached for comment yesterday Premier Parks meanwhile is going forward with plans for next season its top executives said yesterday "Right now is the time of year we go through the planning process" President Gary Story said "It's very compatible with what we're undergoing with our: other facilities" Premier is creating a merchandise package that will focus on Texas history and expects the selection to be much larger than in the past Story said The company is also devising a marketing program for the park's season passes Premier will roll out the program in January and said sales shouldn't be affected by legal battles "The only downside I would forecast is for some of the people that typically buy season passes for Christmas gifts" Premier Chair- man Kieran Burke said GTE From Page 1 phone industry in 1984 has allowed many new competitors into the pay telephone market GTE noted too that pay phones have lost market shares to new technologies such as cell phones paging and Internet ter- minals Consumer advocates have expressed concerns about the effect of higher pay phone charges on the 500000 Texas householders who do not have telephone service Bell said last week that it will raise the price on the 100000 pay phones it operates in Texas That conversion is expected to take about six months Both GTE and Bell said that 911 and toll-free calls will' remain free to pay phone users The Federal Communications Commission told state regulators this month to lift restrictions on NY phone about the same time the Texas Public Utility Commission removed the 25 cent limit Grading HMOs The North Central Texas HEDIS Coalition released its latest report yesterday on how six area health maintenance organizations rate when it comes to various services The participating HMOs are AetnaUS Healthcare Health Plans of North Texas Cigna Health Care of Texas Harris Methodist Texas Health Plan Kaiser Permanente Southwest Division NYLCare Health Plans of the Southwest and Prudential Health Care Plan Service measure Aetna USH Cigna Primary care doctors accepting new patients (Percentage 834 974 Infants re-immunizations by age 2 488 577 642 816 560 611 Females age 15-34 delivering by Cesarean section 229 247 Diabetics age 31-plus receiving retina exam in past year 294 379 Members age 35-plus prescribed beta blockers 30 days before or 7 days after heart attack NA 595 Females age 52-69 receiving mammography in past 2 years 706 713 Source: 1996 HEMS Data Verificatit Project.