By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Jan. 25, 2018) Don’t expect things to continue going the way they were – that’s the message Ocean Pines Association General Manager John Bailey repeatedly stressed, regarding operations at the yacht club, during a clubs committee meeting last Thursday.

The committee drafted a broad agenda of operational questions and spoke to Bailey for a little more than an hour.

When Bailey was finished outlining his vision, the entire group seemed satisfied by the apparent change in direction.

To start, committee member Gary Miller said the group was “kind of surprised” when the club was suddenly closed earlier this month because additional mold was found there.

Bailey said he would present a remediation plan with proposals from several companies during the next board meeting, Jan. 27. He said it would include an environmental assessment of the entire property, including the outside bar area.

He will also propose hiring a management consultant to run the yacht club and beach club.

Bailey admitted he “talked to more than [his] share of brides and mothers this past two weeks” since the yacht club was closed, and was in the process refunding deposits for prior bookings.

“Normally you don’t do that, but in this particular case I thought that was the right thing to do,” he said.

He said the mold is believed to have originated several years ago, when a pipe burst and the association “tried to clean it up on our own.”

“[It’s] not unusual, if you try to do that type of work yourself, that you’re going to end up biting that bullet again,” Bailey said. “We probably didn’t handle that the right way at the time, so that may have contributed to it.”

Air-quality tests done before Christmas “were fine,” Bailey said, but additional analysis received Jan. 2 showed a more significant problem.

“We had the testing done, we’ve got remediation to do, we’ll have a professional crew that’s doing that and we’ll do a complete environmental assessment of the building, so we’ll deal with mold, we’ll deal with insects, we’ll deal with anything else that we have to deal with.

“We’ll reopen when we’re ready,” he added.

He plans to invite health inspectors to the building a month before reopening.

“We will be proactive as we get closer to the season, that we’re going to get everything inspected by the health department, so we’re clear to go, one, for business reasons, and two for that very public reason of letting everybody know … we’ve addressed the mold issue, we’re addressed the other environmental issues, we’ve addressed our food issues and permits and everything else,” he said.

Bailey said almost the entire yacht club staff was laid off, save for a few workers moved over to the Tern Grill and those left to handle client scheduling and inventory.

That apparently included Food and Beverages Director Brian Townsend and chef Rob Sosonovich.

As for who would take over next, Bailey said two proposals had been received and another was expected before the board meeting.

“I am leaning toward a management partner, if you would, versus a direct outsource or doing it in-house,” he said. “It’s likely to be at least a two-year type of contract … One year is to turn things around [and] the second year you’ll start seeing different benefits.”

Bailey said the consultant selected “wouldn’t be bringing 30 people with them,” but would instead bring limited staff, and hire and train new workers.

Committee Chairman Les Purcell said the association did not have a good prior track record with outsourcing.

“Several years back we did it four times – and it was a failure every time. That’s what worries me,” Purcell said.

“We haven’t done what I’m proposing yet,” Bailey said.

He expects management to include the yacht and beach clubs, with the Tern Grill remaining under the umbrella of golf, at least for now. Bailey added consultant groups were “chomping at the bit” regarding weddings and events held at the beach club.

The biggest struggle, according to Miller, was undoing all of the negative perceptions.

“It’s going to be really important that the administration does some really good public relations, advertising, whatever … to let everybody know this is a completely new operation and really sell it,” he said. “Then, hopefully, people will come back at least once and when they see it’s better than it has been, they’ll come back [again].”

“Don’t look for us to do things the way we used to do them,” Bailey said.

“Good!” several committee members responded in unison.

Bailey continued, “The unfortunate aspect of bringing back the old is we don’t see beyond our blinders,” he said. “We’ve got an opportunity here to go way beyond. For a lot of folks that haven’t seen that, they’re fearful of it or don’t get it. But I believe in that and we’ve got one shot, really, to make something different.”