:The Laurel Outlook:News

BY Evelyn Pyburn Special to the Laurel Outlook
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 11:00 AM MDT

Yellowstone County Commissioners will be in Laurel on April 18, at noon at the Senior Citizens Center. It's a listening session at which commissioners will be available to find out what's on the minds of people in Laurel and to share information about what's happening with the county.

The big new video display has been installed at Metra and was functioning over the weekend. One of the events featuring the video was the Outlaws' football game with Sioux Falls Storm. With over 5000 in attendance it was probably the best attendance at an Outlaw football game ever, according to MetraPark Manager Bill Dutcher.

Commissioners met with Dutcher on Monday morning to discuss a number of issues including the end of the controversial 15-year contract the facility has had with Coke Cola. The contract will finally end on July 12 and the question looms whether to issue a request for proposal for an exclusive vendor once again. The commissioners discussed the pros and cons. Their primary concern was that additional storage space will be needed if they offer both Coke and Pepsi products.

Some years ago the local Pepsi distributorship filed suit against the county regarding the Coke contract contending it far exceeded the limitations imposed by state law for the length of contractual agreements. Former management of MetraPark entered into the contract, ostensibly, because the company offered benefits such as the four-sided scoreboard at Metra. The new digital video board recently replaced that scoreboard.

Because MetraPark wound up, in the later years of the contract, paying considerably more for product than the retail price at local discount stores, one of the commissioners pointed out that there were no real benefits to the contract. In the end, “We paid for everything,” he said.

Commissioner John Ostlund noted however that the fault lay not with the vendor but with past management which signed contracts which weren't brought to the Board of County Commissioners for approval.

While the commissioners are concerned about MetraPark's ability to handle all soft drink products through its concessions, they are interested in opening up the option to other MetraPark users who provide concessions or promote events, to use any product of their choosing.

The issue of exclusivity is also being examined regarding catering services. Metra dropped their own catering services and opened it up to local caterers to negotiate their own arrangements with the promoters of events. But that sometimes isn't what the customer wants. Sometimes they just want MetraPark management to “handle it.” Overseeing catering services, even when they aren't in-house, is very time-consuming for MetraPark and sometimes not profitable enough to capture the interest of independent caterers.

Providing catering services for the unpredictable attendance of the Sky Boxes is of primary concern. That particular aspect of catering services is unprofitable for caterers as it was for MetraPark when they did the catering. What makes the arrangement beneficial to Metra is the revenue generated through the general rental agreement.

Commissioner Jim Reno is resistant to exclusivity arrangements with catering or to reinstitute catering services in-house. “It's not something we do well,” he said, adding that by trying to “be all things to all people, is how we get in trouble.”

As everyone at the meeting weighed in with ideas, they agreed that discussions would be on-going as options are examined.

Beginning Tuesday, May 13, the commissioners will add onto their regular weekly board meetings an extended meeting on the second Tuesday of each month to deal exclusively with MetraPark business. “We have to start doing business more formally,” said Commissioner Bill Kennedy. The county commissioners assumed a more engaged role in administering MetraPark over a year ago, with the decision to make the MetraPark Board an advisory board and not an administrative board.

The Advisory Board will still meet monthly, in pursuit of its charge to provide the commissioners with input and ideas, explained Kennedy. “What I really want them to do is to attend events and talk to people and bring what they learn back to us.”