By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Jan. 18, 2018) Call it the yacht club, the Cove at Mumford’s Landing, or any other name – indications are Ocean Pines will not manage the building on 1 Mumford Landing Road much longer.

The topic came up often during budget deliberations on Tuesday between the Ocean Pines Association Budget and Finance Committee and General Manager John Bailey.

Committee members wanted to lower payroll estimates for the fiscal year 2019 budget and talked about closing the facility during the winter months, when losses mount.

Bailey indicated new, outside management would be coming and would not want to close the club down for several months.

Following the meeting, he addressed rumors the association is heading that way and likely is looking for someone to manage all food and beverage operations in the community, with the possible exception of the Tern Grille.

“That’s the direction I’m thinking of right now,” he said. “I’m waiting to get another proposal or two in – that will make the difference in which one I propose or recommend to the board – but I anticipate that being done at the Jan. 27 board meeting.

“Whether or not we come to finalization that day – it may be another couple of weeks before we finalize something,” Bailey continued. “But, no matter what we do or which managing partner we work to get a contract with … that’s certainly where I believe that we’re heading towards.”

Bailey said at least one proposal had already been received and he expected two more before the board meeting. He declined to name any of the companies.

He also confirmed the most recent food and beverage director, Brian Townsend, had been let go.

“The ability to hire the right food and beverage director and get that individual in place to train people and all of that stuff – we have that capability, collectively and with my past skill sets, I think we can do that – however, I don’t have time to focus on that,” Bailey said. “A management partner would do all of that. We know that they have the skillset to do all those things and think beyond our ‘well, we’ve always done it this way approach.’

“There’ve been a lot of good things that we’ve done at the past at the beach club and yacht club, but we don’t want to limit ourselves to the past successes – we want to go beyond that. And I think a managing partner, in this particular situation, would be the best way to achieve that,” Bailey added.

He went on to say the options were limited, because the decision to lease food and beverage outright “needed to be done last September or October.”

The goal is to get everything up and running again in time for Memorial Day.

“Process-wise, it’s too late in the game to … go that process, get presentations and pick one, and then have them get up and running,” Bailey said. “But a consulting group, to come in and hire and train and create menus and all of that, that’s going to be pushing it as well, but that’s going to be more doable.”