Council Discusses Concession Stand

Mayor David Stahl thinks that community volunteer groups that run township owned property, such as concession stands and the community garden plots, should keep whatever revenue they generate from them.

He said the money raised through those efforts is used as “seed” money for community projects and to keep costs down for people involved in those groups.

“I believe that whether it be sports groups using , or whether it’s the Friends of the Environmental Commission, who operate our community plots over here at the municipal center, that whatever small net proceeds they may gain should go back into the individual programs,” said Stahl.

On Monday, the Township Council discussed who should run not only the “comfort station” located at the athletic complex in , but all township-owned concession stands. . At the time,  the East Brunswick Soccer Club was running the operation. The club was chosen after the township asked athletic groups that use the fields to submit proposals. Mayor Stahl said that just two of the groups that use the nearby turf fields submitted proposals. He also said that going out to bid on one stand currently used by a non-profit group would mean going out to bid on all of them.

“The administrative code talks about this,” said Mayor Stahl. “ gets bid out because, under the code, whenever you take a concession stand and put it out for use by a for-profit, you must bid it out. On the other hand, it specifically says that when that same stand is put for use by a nonprofit, which all the sports groups are, 501 3C organizations, the administrative code says that it is not a concession stand as defined. They want (the money) to go back to the group.”

He said that if he followed the council’s logic the $10 raised by the Friends of the Environmental Commission for each community garden plot should go right back to the municipality.

Mayor Stahl said stands such as that one have always been run by the organizations using them, such as the stand at which is run by the East Brunswick Baseball League and the stand run by the East Brunswick Soccer Club.

But some council members said the agreement might not be fair.  Ferraro said she is looking for equitable treatment of taxpayers.

“We don’t have even handed treatment at all in any of the areas,” said Ferraro. “We have a private firm at Crystal Springs, the soccer club that operates at Dideriksen, and the baseball managers, don’t quote me, is operating under a 99 year lease, so its all piecemeal. Is there a policy that’s in writing, is there an agreement in writing that protects all sides.?”

Wendell said on Monday he was concerned that the comfort station in Heavenly Farms, which opened in the fall, was being operated without a “plan.”

“I just want to see that we move forward with the facility with property agreements in place, and that proper discussions are happening, if they’ve already been had,” said Wendell. “We need to test the waters to see what can be done, that’s my opinion.”

Wendell and Ferraro, both said they would like to see the concession stand at Heavenly Farms open seven days a week, and Wendell questioned why the facility was built without any kind of cooking element.

“I don’t believe that we should be looking for any one organization to fit out something,” he said. “If we as a governing body is going to build something, we should build it so no organization, or group, should have to foot the bill and it’s bothersome to me that we didn’t finish this facility, if that was the intent to build the facility.”

Mayor Stahl said the facility was indeed finished and that it was intentionally built without cooking equipment and that he never envisioned anyone other than the groups that use the turf fields nearby to run the stand.

“My belief is that the sports groups, and no sport group in particular, whoever is was going to use the facility would have to use their private funds from their organization to fit it out because they would, in essence, be reaping whatever benefits they got out of using that concession stand, so I deliberately did not want taxpayers to have to pay for those fit outs.”