After a rocky summer season, the Athens Lions Club Kiddie Carnival will open its gates an additional weekend this year, keeping the rides running through Aug. 11.

The carnival was already two rides down at the start of the season when a distracted teen driver crashed into the rocket ride a few weeks later on July 7, eliminating another ride at the park. The driver also mowed down a portion of the carnival’s exterior fence, a utility pole and a fence on the other side of the ride.

“It has been a very strange carnival season for us,” said Lions Club President Keith Barksdale. “We have not experienced all of these issues at one time before.”

Despite the setbacks, Barksdale and his dedicated team of volunteers haven’t missed a beat, moving forward with plans to make the carnival better than ever.

They are actively working with the insurance company to replace the 1960s-era rocket ride. They repaired the roller coaster ride that broke down a week after the car accident. They also replaced with a newer, faster version the popular Scrambler ride that had been out of service since last season.

In mid-July, a faulty tire all but shut down the roller coaster ride — a perennial favorite of adventure-seeking toddlers. Normally, Barksdale said, they would have to send the tire off to be repaired, but this time around he and his cousin, Jay Smith, a local welder, worked together to replace the tire with a pneumatic lawnmower tire.

“Since we did that, it’s been working the best it ever has,” Barksdale said.

Using a loan from an anonymous Lions Club member, Barksdale was able to buy “The Little Scrambler” two weekends ago from a former carnival owner in St. Louis, Missouri. The $24,000 ride was up and running by the last weekend in July. Children were allowed to ride it for free the first night it opened because of a donation from the family of former Lions Club member Ernie Ford, whose birthday was the same day.

“We thought that was a good tribute to Ernie, who passed away a couple of months ago,” Barksdale said. “The kids love the new Scrambler. It’s faster and much quieter than the one we had before. They liked it so much, they were screaming and hollering and racing to the back of the line so they could get on it again.”

Although Barksdale said they have made some progress on the damaged area of the park, he doesn’t expect to be able to replace the rocket ride until next season. So far, the insurance company has paid out enough to fix the toppled utility pole and damaged fence, but at a prorated amount.

“They (the insurance company) will have to replace the ride, send somebody to go get it and install it,” Barksdale said. “I would imagine it won’t all be covered.”

That is one of the reasons the group has decided to extend the Kiddie Carnival for an additional weekend.

“We are going to use the funds from the extra weekend to pay for the ride that was damaged and for other expenses we incurred this year,” Barksdale said. “We also hope to set a little money back in case something like this (the destruction of the rocket ride) happens again.”

Located at 309 E. Forrest St. in Athens, the Kiddie Carnival is open from 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through Aug. 11. Tickets are 50 cents per ride.