In an effort to find someone to run the Town Beach concession stand for the 2022 season, the Parks & Recreation Commission (PRC) is seeking permission to put out a request for proposal (RFP) to find an operator. If an operator isn’t found by early May, the stand will likely not open for the summer.

Earlier this year, PRC announced that Hog Wild, after two years of running the beach concession stand, would not return for summer 2022, citing the high utility cost. At a meeting on April 12, PRC Chair Joe Schettino said that he plans to ask the Town Council and Town Manager Karl Kilduff to put an RFP out to try and get an operator for the summer.

The board members unanimously voted that night to authorize Schettino to send a letter to the council asking for the town to put out the RFP, that the town charge no fees to anyone interested in running the stand, and that the town cover all utilities for the stand besides propane.

The commission also said there was a ticking clock for how long it makes sense to look for an operator.

“If we don’t get someone in place by the first or second week of May, I say we close it down for the year,” Schettino said at the April PRC meeting.

Schettino said the beach opens partially in May and then officially opens the middle of June. Following a PRC meeting in early March, the commission agreed it would be a bad look for the town is the concession stand was not opened this year.

After a meeting in March, Schettino said that he and Parks & Recreation Department Director Bo Potter would meet with Town Manager Karl Kilduff at a future date to discuss what to do with the stand. As of the April PRC meeting, that had not yet occurred.

Schettino lamented that while the winter months is when the concession is discussed by the PRC, it’s also the middle of budget season for the town. That makes it hard to get the attention of town officials since they’re preoccupied with getting a budget approved, Schettino said. As a result, Schettino said he had not yet been able to talk about the matter with the town.

Finding someone to run the stand for the upcoming season is a problem the commission has been talking about for months. Earlier in the year and again at the meeting on April 12, Schettino and the commission touched on the reasons that make finding someone to run the concession stand so complicated.

Schettino said that to him, the beach concession stand “is a service, not truly a business.” In other words, Schettino said that whoever operates the stand can’t go in expecting to make a large profit.

“You can’t compare it to the Town Dock stand. It’s not apples to apples,” Schettino said.

The town dock has a food stand that has long been popular and is able to stay open into October if operators so choose. That condition doesn’t happen at the beach, where people only show up if the weather is nice. The commission said that beyond the weather, there’s also the fact that because of where Clinton Town Beach is located, it’s susceptible to water closures.

The commission said the beach was closed to swimming more than five times during summer 2021 alone. With the beach closed to swimming even if the weather is cooperative, it’s still unlikely people show up at the beach.

“I don’t think it’s fair someone has to pay when we can’t guarantee the number of days it will be open,” said Schettino in reference to the fees associated with opening the stand at the March 8 meeting.

Further complicating matters is the fact that the town can’t run the stand itself. Schettino said that the money to run the stand was not included in the proposed budget, and that it is hard to find volunteers.

“We’ve tried it before and it didn’t work. It would also be another aspect [Potter] has to be concerned with,” said Schettino at the March 8 meeting, pointing out how many facilities Potter is already charged with running.

Chris Passante is a member of both the PRC and the Town Council and said he felt that at least some members on the council would be receptive to the suggestion of running the stand like a service rather than as a business.

At press time, the regularly scheduled Town Council meeting that was to be held April 20 had been canceled. An April 27 Town Council Special Meeting (after press time) had been added to the town calendar; an agenda for that meeting was not available at press time.