By Erin Knutson

The City of Fernie motioned in favour of redrafting a Request for Decision (RFD) regarding the use of the Fernie Memorial Arena concession services to a Request for Proposal (RFP) following discussion during a recent council meeting (Nov.8).

Following a recommendation by Brett Logan, Director of Parks, Facilities, and Recreation, to have staff enter into a two-year agreement with the Elk Valley Dolphins Swim Club Society (EVDSC) to manage concession services and allow for a budget of $5,000 for upgrades to the concession for 2022, council decided upon redrafting the request.

Logan advocated for the group outlining their ability to successfully run and commit to the concession based on their extensive volunteer resources.

“With the Dolphin Swim Club, they’re large enough to have the capacity to run this, and in their proposal, they created a director of concessions to oversee operations with the help of a club bookkeeper,” he said.

Logan emphasized the swim club as an ideal tenant, citing a lack of interest from other candidates in prior bids for the concession while highlighting the merit of a concession run by the club for fundraising opportunities.

Mayor and council were reticent to entertain the request given the exclusory nature toward other groups in the community.

“It’s an easy solution – it’s not fair to entertain one group. We need to post this as an RFP again and have other groups submit if they are interested in running that concession,” said councillor Troy Nixon.

Mayor Ange Qualizza backed Nixon’s remarks and led staff and council in an exploratory discussion on how to move the request forward.

“I support Coun. Nixon – we don’t operate that way in government. We need to write a new proposal and share the opportunity. Everyone should have an opportunity to participate,” she said.

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