By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members have given the green light for City Manager John Sheedy to negotiate a contract with a local restaurant for concession services at the city’s multipurpose center on the golf course.
Del Rio City Council members on Feb. 14 unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing Sheedy to negotiate with owners of The Good Bar “for (a) restaurant, catering and concession services for the city of Del Rio Multipurpose Facility.”
The Good Bar restaurant is located at 703 E. Gibbs St.
After Mayor Al Arreola called for action on the contract negotiation, Mayor Pro-tem Steve Webb made a motion to approve the ordinance, with Councilwoman Alexandra Falcon Calderon giving the second.
Calderon also said she had a question about the ordinance.
“This is just to start an agreement, and then you bring us back what you’ve discussed with them?” Calderon asked the city manager.
“Yes, ma’am, absolutely, so once you all have approved this, we’ve already spoken to (The Good Bar representative). I spoke to him today, we’ll sit down with him, hopefully tomorrow or the next day, and we’ll work on the arrangements, as far as what the agreement’s going to entail, and then we’ll bring it back,” Sheedy replied.
“And then what’s brought back, if there’s something that’s missing that we want to consider, we can still change or can we meet with you, kind of give you some ideas, things to look out for?” Calderon asked.
“As a matter of fact, we hope we’re going to sit down with him tomorrow or the next day and as soon as I can sit down with him, I can sit down with you and (discuss) kind of what we’re looking at and hear thoughts from everybody,” Sheedy said.
“My concern is because of the pro shop, the pro shop being part of a retail business within the golf course, that’s why. We’ve got to consider them. It says here something about catering and concession services. That right there kind of gave me a concern, about concession services, what is concession services for them?” Calderon said.
“We’ll bring all that back,” Sheedy replied.
“City manager, if I can clarify, the ordinance says ‘negotiate and award a contract.’ Do we need to ratify that, or make an exception to the wording?” City Secretary Mari Acosta asked.
“The intent is to get approval to negotiate,” Sheedy replied.
City Attorney Jack Stern then suggested taking out the phrase “and award” from the ordinance text.
Acosta asked if Webb would like to amend his motion to reflect the change, and he said he would.
“And just for clarification and transparency here, they (the Good Bar) were the ones that did the bid? And that’s how they are in here, because of their bid,” Calderon asked.
“Yes, ma’am. We put that out and made it available to anyone that was interested, and we only received the one bid,” Sheedy replied.
The council then voted unanimously to approve the amended ordinance to allow Sheedy to begin negotiations with The Good Bar.
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