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Features at the park include:
The Eldridge Park Carousel, Jasper II boat ride, hatchling paddleboat rentals, Mark Twain Mini Golf Course, arcade, and ice cream shop are generally open on weekends from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day and includes a snack bar and souvenir shop. There are outdoor movies, music, dancing, and classic cars at the park all throughout the summer. Check the community calendar below for more information Carousel Rides
Jasper II Rides
Hatchling Rentals
Mark Twain Mini Golf
* These items are managed and maintained by the Eldridge Park Carousel Preservation Society (EPCPS), a non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration of Eldridge Park. Information regarding rental and use of these facilities is available from EPCPS on their website.
Eldridge Park Bat Houses - Eagle Scout Project New to Eldridge Park this year are 20 small bat-houses scattered around the park. What you ask, are bat-houses, and why have they been installed in the park? With the renaissance of Eldridge Park have come dozens of new activities, many of which occur into the evening and night-time hours. Park patrons have realized, perhaps for the first time, that they share the park environment with mosquitoes – many thousands of them. Eldridge’s proximity to both state and federally protected wetlands makes it prime ground for mosquitoes, and the predators that rely on them as a food source.
To protect the park’s patrons, the Eldridge Park Carousel Preservation Society teamed with Boy Scout Troop 101 of Elmira to build and install 20 bat-houses for little brown bats – our most common species in the Southern Tier. The bat-houses were designed with the help of Chemung County Soil and Water agent Mark Richer, and can each shelter up to 75 little brown bats. The bat-houses at Eldridge Park can shelter enough bats to eat 1.5 million mosquitoes each night! Will the Eldridge Park bats have rabies? It is a fact that some bats have rabies. However, as with dogs with rabies, the percentage of the population is less than 1%. You should never handle a sick or injured animal of any kind, including bats; you should never handle a wild animal at all! Bats that are slow enough to be caught by a person should be reported to the appropriate authorities – slow moving bats may be sick. For more information on bats and how you can help them to help us, visit Bat Conservation International’s website at www.batcon.org. Thanks go to the Chemung County Soil and Water Conservation District and Lowe’s Home Improvement Center for donation of materials for this Eagle Scout Community Service Project.
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Bats in New York are our major predators of nocturnal insects. One small bat can eat more than 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour, and they eliminate the need for pesticides for insects. They do not impact the food supply for birds. There are six common bat species found in New York across the state; these include the Keen's Bat, Little Brown Bat, Silver-Haired Bat, Big Brown Bat, Red Bat, and the Hoary Bat. 