Bid Ploy Leaves Park With 2 Food Stands

After vendors failed to bid on five food concession sites in City Park before last week’s deadline, Gordon Andrea’s “Fun-tastic-foods” will be one of just two concessionaires in the park this summer.

Even so, Andrea said he won’t change a thing.

Same hot dogs, cotton candy and burgers. Same prices, too.

“A lot of people would take advantage of the situation,” said Andrea, who has operated “Fun-tastic-foods” on Independence Point for nine years. “I will not do that. I’ve got a good reputation on the beach, I’ve worked hard for it, and I want to keep it.”

Andrea and Ruth Barker, who operates a concession near the Memorial bandshell, have been in the park the longest of any vendors and already have renewed their contracts with the city.

So why won’t the others be joining them? Word got out that other vendors were waiting until after the bidding deadline in hopes they would receive reduced rates - minimum bids were set between $1,432 and $2,491. But at last week’s City Council meeting, council members went so far as to rule out reopening bidding for the five remaining sites.

“I don’t like the idea of an attempt to hold us hostage,” said council member Chris Copstead. “We’ve done without vendors in the past. We can do it again.”

The decision not to reopen the bidding essentially represents a stare-down between the city and the potential vendors, agreed council member Ron Edinger. The city just didn’t blink.

Just why concessionaires withheld their bids may stem from a decision four days before the busy Fourth of July holiday last summer. Then, one vendor negotiated a greatly reduced $750 bid to operate the rest of the season in a still-vacant site. Potential vendors this spring may have been banking on duplicating that coup.

Copstead conceded that it may have been a mistake to allow the negotiated bid last year, but remains adamant about not reopening the bidding this time around.

The parks department’s capital improvement fund, which supports land acquisition and new park development, stands to lose $9,502 ordinarily generated from these bids. But parks director Doug Eastwood said there already is more than $70,000 in the fund.

“There have been times when there haven’t been vendors in the park,” said Eastwood. “We can get by this year.”

Even though business most likely will be up as a result at the remaining concessionaires, Andrea said the beach may seem emptier this year. The colorful stands and the mix of food fare, coupled with the sand, sun and laid-back setting along the lakefront add to beach experience, he said.

“I feel it creates a good ambience for the park to have different vendors in there,” Andrea said. “But I think this year it’s too late. What the city did is call the vendors’ bluff. I think it should remain.”

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