The city may be taking over concession services at W.L. White Arena, at least for the short term.
City commissioners heard a presentation from facilities manager Ed Rathke explaining that possibility at their Wednesday study session.
Bid packets for concession services were sent to 12 vendors to run the concession stands at the arena, but only one bid was returned, Rathke said. The company that submitted that bid had not provided any financial information requested by the city, so commissioners decided they will reject that bid at next week’s regular meeting.
That will leave the arena without a concessionaire by the time its busy season starts on Sept. 18.
City manager Matt Zimmerman said there would be no way to re-bid the project before December, so with no concessionaire in place it will be up to the city to provide those services.
“Yes, we can do it, but it’s hard,” Zimmerman said. “Yes we have the equipment, and we don’t know why we didn’t get more responses.”
The previous concession contract expired in May, and that operator has moved out of state, Rathke said.
Operating the concession stands through the city is something Rathke said he has thought about before.
“This is something I’ve kind of kicked around with Matt, but it means I gotta have enough staff to do it,” Rathke said. “I believe there’s enough cash flow in this to do it. I don’t want to do it forever, but it would be very, very nice to know exactly how much we could make.”
Staff will be meeting to delineate exactly what will be needed to run the concessions, Zimmerman said.
Running the concessions with city staff likely will not be a long-term solution, but it could work in the short-term.
“Right now we will be opening (the stands) with city staff on the 18th,” Rathke said.
Commissioners also heard a presentation from city engineer Mike Novak regarding the Kansas Department of Transportation’s five-year road project plan. The plan is used to determine where federal money will go to help pay for road projects.
“... The way that we get on to bid a project eligible for federal funds is to have one on the five-year plan,” Novak said. “We look ahead to these things and plan to have everything ready with the project when the funding’s available, and then the construction begins.”
Three projects in Emporia are examples of projects on the plan: the Highway 50 and Graphic Arts Road project, the improvements on Industrial Road and the 18th Avenue bridge project.
“The question today is to see what your interest is in another project for a future day to assess and decide based on need in the street system,” Novak said.
The consensus among commissioners was to examine a number of possibilities before making a decision on which projects to pursue.