OCEAN PINES– A minor controversy erupted during an Ocean Pines Association meeting on Saturday, after several residents and one board member complained that groups in Ocean Pines were not booking many of their signature events in the new Yacht Club.
The Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce’s Awards and Installation Banquet, for instance, was booked at the Ocean City Marlin Club rather than the Yacht Club.
“If somebody invests over $4 million in your back yard…you don’t go somewhere else to save a couple dollars,” said OPA Board Parliamentarian Tom Terry, who noted he was coming at the issue from an “economic development standpoint.”
Some officials said the matter was a non-issue.
“We actually have an after-hours event booked there in December, at the Yacht Club,” said Will Cathell, director of the Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce. “I do not think there is any kind of boycott by any local groups.”
Cathell said he was impressed with what he has seen at the new facility.
“I went there with my kids and my wife and my parents,” he said. The food is pretty good, I like the outside stuff, I like how the room upstairs is open. I’ve only been there once, but I didn’t really have any complaints about it. I grew up in the area. The old yacht club is where I had my prom.”
Board Member Marty Clarke contended that the issue extended beyond the Chamber of Commerce, stating that a local golf club went to Lighthouse Sound instead of the Yacht Club.
“Both groups are not very happy with the way the Yacht Club came off,” Clarke said.
Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Liz Kain-Bolan said the awards banquet had been bid out to a number of venues, including the Yacht Club.
“The rates weren’t competitive with our other bidders,” Kain-Bolan said.
OPA General Manager Bob Thompson said plenty of groups in Ocean Pines were, in fact, booking events at the Yacht Club.
“We’re excited about the new venue,” he said. “We’re excited about the opportunity it presents, and we feel that our product, our price and our strategy is strong and focused in a business-like manner. It may not meet everyone’s needs, but we certainly are going to do our very best to attract the majority of the business we can, especially from our community groups and our community members.”
A handful of residents have grumbled that community groups – like everyone else – are required to pay fees when renting space in the Yacht Club. Thompson argued that the facility was designed to bring revenue into the community, and that it would do just that.
“We’re now operating the Yacht Club in a more business-like manner, which is what we’re tasked to do,” he said. “It’s different than a community center where you would have (public) use of this space. The Yacht Club is a food and beverage operation, so that’s how we’re operating. Using it to take up space – with cards or what have you – is not the intended use of this facility.
“Either we run it in a non-business-like manner, and we let anyone use it and then we just accept the losses each year, or we run it in a business-like manner and do our very best to make sure we’re covering the cost of operations,” Thompson continued. “And if we can make a little bit of money to offset costs somewhere else in the Association, that’s a positive for all of us – that’s the direction we’re headed in. I believe we’re moving in the right direction, and our numbers indicate that.”
The Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce’s Awards and Installation Banquet, for instance, was booked at the Ocean City Marlin Club rather than the Yacht Club.
“If somebody invests over $4 million in your back yard…you don’t go somewhere else to save a couple dollars,” said OPA Board Parliamentarian Tom Terry, who noted he was coming at the issue from an “economic development standpoint.”
Some officials said the matter was a non-issue.
“We actually have an after-hours event booked there in December, at the Yacht Club,” said Will Cathell, director of the Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce. “I do not think there is any kind of boycott by any local groups.”
Cathell said he was impressed with what he has seen at the new facility.
“I went there with my kids and my wife and my parents,” he said. The food is pretty good, I like the outside stuff, I like how the room upstairs is open. I’ve only been there once, but I didn’t really have any complaints about it. I grew up in the area. The old yacht club is where I had my prom.”
Board Member Marty Clarke contended that the issue extended beyond the Chamber of Commerce, stating that a local golf club went to Lighthouse Sound instead of the Yacht Club.
“Both groups are not very happy with the way the Yacht Club came off,” Clarke said.
Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Liz Kain-Bolan said the awards banquet had been bid out to a number of venues, including the Yacht Club.
“The rates weren’t competitive with our other bidders,” Kain-Bolan said.
OPA General Manager Bob Thompson said plenty of groups in Ocean Pines were, in fact, booking events at the Yacht Club.
“We’re excited about the new venue,” he said. “We’re excited about the opportunity it presents, and we feel that our product, our price and our strategy is strong and focused in a business-like manner. It may not meet everyone’s needs, but we certainly are going to do our very best to attract the majority of the business we can, especially from our community groups and our community members.”
A handful of residents have grumbled that community groups – like everyone else – are required to pay fees when renting space in the Yacht Club. Thompson argued that the facility was designed to bring revenue into the community, and that it would do just that.
“We’re now operating the Yacht Club in a more business-like manner, which is what we’re tasked to do,” he said. “It’s different than a community center where you would have (public) use of this space. The Yacht Club is a food and beverage operation, so that’s how we’re operating. Using it to take up space – with cards or what have you – is not the intended use of this facility.
“Either we run it in a non-business-like manner, and we let anyone use it and then we just accept the losses each year, or we run it in a business-like manner and do our very best to make sure we’re covering the cost of operations,” Thompson continued. “And if we can make a little bit of money to offset costs somewhere else in the Association, that’s a positive for all of us – that’s the direction we’re headed in. I believe we’re moving in the right direction, and our numbers indicate that.”