(Nov. 17, 2016) Interim General Manager Brett Hill’s fiscal year 2018 budget guidance to the Ocean Pines Board more or less consisted of a pair of renovations designed to target a multitude of problems.
During a special meeting on Monday, Hill recommended extensive remodeling of the administration building on Ocean Parkway and giving up the majority of the existing footprint to the already attached – but by all accounts cramped – police department.
To make up some of that space, he laid out plans to renovate the country club, adding three new meeting areas.
Proposals made by the previous administration included new police station and country club buildings, with estimates upwards of $2 million for each.
Hill’s renovation proposal would cost $360,000 to address deficiencies at the police department, more than doubling police space from 1,770 to 3,795 square feet and eliminating common areas and meeting space used by committee groups, the board and the various advisory committees.
He also presented a plan for the country club, developed with Facilities Manager Jerry Aveta and Golf Director John Malinowski, with a total price tag of about $850,000 spread out over two years.
That included expanding the Tern Grill restaurant, reducing the men’s and women’s locker room areas and upgrading both bathrooms on the first floor, while creating a new boardroom space, two additional meeting rooms, an outdoor deck and additional restaurant space on the second floor.
At the country club, the renovations would apparently include a new roof and upgraded HVAC systems, taking the building down “to a shell” while remodeling it.
Along with being less costly than outright replacement of either building, the renovations would not require any serious interruption of golf operations and would keep that revenue stream active, Hill said.
“This would be the long-term golf facility – it’s not a short-term fix,” he said. “Looking at what we can do to have the greatest impact on golf now and help give them reasons to keep the golfers on the course … we all felt this was a great use of space, and this is something that our internal staff could facilitate in the six weeks that John is going to be down in January and February.
“As soon as the golf season starts to pick back up when the weather breaks, we would have the space available to utilize and directly impact the 2017 golfing season,” he added.
Board Vice President Dave Stevens said he was “skeptical – a lot,” adding “serious thought needs to be given to functionality.”
Director Cheryl Jacobs wondered if Hill or others had explored requests for a fitness area, or whether the country club proposal addressed the failing cart barn.
According to Hill, improvements related to aquatics would partially address the community’s fitness needs, while public works staff could repair the existing cart barn, which was structurally sound.
He said the renovations at the country club would benefit more than just the golf set.
“Over half a million dollars is going into space that’s for the direct benefit of the community [and] the community members, and it’s serving needs outside of golf,” he said. “There are many, many groups that rely on our facilities for weekly card games [or] Girl Scout or Boy Scout meetings … we go a whole lot farther than just doing golf and pools for our members.”
Several directors worried that a business justification was lacking, comparing the proposals to the new yacht club.
Hill countered that, unlike the yacht club, the administration building and country club projects would not strictly be about food and beverage operations, and went as far as to promise expanded space “is going to be used to bring in no revenue.”
“It’s for community service,” he said. “To say that we’re approaching this as a food and beverage investment is way, way off base … this is not a food and beverage investment.”
Board President Tom Herrick said Hill was not asking for more space, but was “trying to get the best use of the available space we already have.”
“It appears we have definitely ruled out the possibility for replacement, so I guess we can get started from that perspective,” Jacobs said. “What we’re wrestling with is just how do we define the space as a part of the renovation.”
She said that decision needed to be made fairly quickly.
Hill said the two proposals were intertwined. By eliminating meeting space in the administration building and giving police more room to process suspects safely and to conduct more effective investigations, that space had to be made up with the new floor plan at the country club.
“The goal, when all of us were meeting, across all of the staff, was to look at what the overall needs were – and there have been some fairly grandiose needs put out there – and to try and figure out, using the resources that we have and the infrastructure that we have, how we could come up with a plan that meets those needs in the next fiscal year,” he said.
“We tried to figure out what was the way we could accomplish the most with the least amount of money and utilize what we have,” Hill added.
During a special meeting on Monday, Hill recommended extensive remodeling of the administration building on Ocean Parkway and giving up the majority of the existing footprint to the already attached – but by all accounts cramped – police department.
To make up some of that space, he laid out plans to renovate the country club, adding three new meeting areas.
Proposals made by the previous administration included new police station and country club buildings, with estimates upwards of $2 million for each.
Hill’s renovation proposal would cost $360,000 to address deficiencies at the police department, more than doubling police space from 1,770 to 3,795 square feet and eliminating common areas and meeting space used by committee groups, the board and the various advisory committees.
He also presented a plan for the country club, developed with Facilities Manager Jerry Aveta and Golf Director John Malinowski, with a total price tag of about $850,000 spread out over two years.
That included expanding the Tern Grill restaurant, reducing the men’s and women’s locker room areas and upgrading both bathrooms on the first floor, while creating a new boardroom space, two additional meeting rooms, an outdoor deck and additional restaurant space on the second floor.
At the country club, the renovations would apparently include a new roof and upgraded HVAC systems, taking the building down “to a shell” while remodeling it.
Along with being less costly than outright replacement of either building, the renovations would not require any serious interruption of golf operations and would keep that revenue stream active, Hill said.
“This would be the long-term golf facility – it’s not a short-term fix,” he said. “Looking at what we can do to have the greatest impact on golf now and help give them reasons to keep the golfers on the course … we all felt this was a great use of space, and this is something that our internal staff could facilitate in the six weeks that John is going to be down in January and February.
“As soon as the golf season starts to pick back up when the weather breaks, we would have the space available to utilize and directly impact the 2017 golfing season,” he added.
Board Vice President Dave Stevens said he was “skeptical – a lot,” adding “serious thought needs to be given to functionality.”
Director Cheryl Jacobs wondered if Hill or others had explored requests for a fitness area, or whether the country club proposal addressed the failing cart barn.
According to Hill, improvements related to aquatics would partially address the community’s fitness needs, while public works staff could repair the existing cart barn, which was structurally sound.
He said the renovations at the country club would benefit more than just the golf set.
“Over half a million dollars is going into space that’s for the direct benefit of the community [and] the community members, and it’s serving needs outside of golf,” he said. “There are many, many groups that rely on our facilities for weekly card games [or] Girl Scout or Boy Scout meetings … we go a whole lot farther than just doing golf and pools for our members.”
Several directors worried that a business justification was lacking, comparing the proposals to the new yacht club.
Hill countered that, unlike the yacht club, the administration building and country club projects would not strictly be about food and beverage operations, and went as far as to promise expanded space “is going to be used to bring in no revenue.”
“It’s for community service,” he said. “To say that we’re approaching this as a food and beverage investment is way, way off base … this is not a food and beverage investment.”
Board President Tom Herrick said Hill was not asking for more space, but was “trying to get the best use of the available space we already have.”
“It appears we have definitely ruled out the possibility for replacement, so I guess we can get started from that perspective,” Jacobs said. “What we’re wrestling with is just how do we define the space as a part of the renovation.”
She said that decision needed to be made fairly quickly.
Hill said the two proposals were intertwined. By eliminating meeting space in the administration building and giving police more room to process suspects safely and to conduct more effective investigations, that space had to be made up with the new floor plan at the country club.
“The goal, when all of us were meeting, across all of the staff, was to look at what the overall needs were – and there have been some fairly grandiose needs put out there – and to try and figure out, using the resources that we have and the infrastructure that we have, how we could come up with a plan that meets those needs in the next fiscal year,” he said.
“We tried to figure out what was the way we could accomplish the most with the least amount of money and utilize what we have,” Hill added.