The Oak Brook Village Board has decided to test the waters for possibly bringing in a private sector business to take over operation of food and beverage management for the Oak Brook Golf Club, Bath & Tennis Club and Poolside Cafe.
More Top Picks Best Color E Readers For Reading
The board is seeking proposals from interested parties, which must make submissions by Nov. 2. If an agreement is reached for 2024, the village reserves the right to award an annual lease agreement extension for the years 2025-2028, not to exceed four years.
The idea to seek outside proposals for food and beverage service at this time was prompted by recent resignation of some in-house staff in that area and an ensuing difficulty in finding others to take over those positions.
“We’ve struggled to hire staff,” Village Manager Greg Summers said. “The entire industry has struggled to hire staff. We’d like to go out to the market and identify options. In the government sector, we’re not in the food service business. It’s probably not the best thing we do.”
Summers said there are possibilities that the village can improve the food service and food quality that has been available and at the same time reduce overhead.
“We’re just going out there for proposals, look at what they could pay in terms of rent, what they could pay in terms of utility services for the facility. There’s a possibility that we could make more money by not doing it and not having the administrative burden.”
Village President Larry Herman agreed.
“This is exploratory, but this all could be better if we find someone who is interested and do a good job,” he said.
Summers said having the board making a decision soon on the direction it wants to take is important.
“We need to figure this out during the off-season, so we can hit the ground running when the club opens up again next March,” he said.
Once proposals are received, village staff will conduct a full analysis and bring its findings to the board for consideration.
“There’s no certainty here. If it’s not a good deal for the village, if it’s not the right fit for our club we’ll go back to the drawing board and try to identify an in-sourced operation.”
Summers said the village would be looking to actively keep a lot of the same people who have been working with the food and beverage operation and would ask any food service operator to consider interviewing and keeping many of those people.
“They know our facility, they know our members and they know what the service needs are,” he said.
Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.