The Howard Ice Arena in St. Joseph is set to open for the season this Friday, and a new concessions vendor has been found by the city in the nick of time.
St. Joseph City Commissioners this week considered a new vendor contract with Hernandez Family Concessions of Berrien Springs. You may have seen, or tried, their Tacos Hernandez stand at Warren Dunes State Park.
The city terminated its contract with the previous ice arena vendor due to non-payment on the vendor’s part. However, he complained Monday that he only didn’t pay up because ice arena management weren’t enforcing a rule prohibiting outside food in the venue. Commissioner Michael Sarola suggested that’s not even a fair rule.
“Because it’s a youth ice arena, it’s a league, inflation’s catching up to everybody,” Sarola said. “To forbid someone from bringing a sandwich in between a hockey match is probably — I don’t know if we need to address that in the language of the contract — but I mean, to me that’s commonsensical, that we need to allow that.”
While there are signs at the ice arena prohibiting outside food, City Attorney Laurie Schmidt said the matter is not policed. Either way, Commissioner Michelle Binkley said the vendor’s failure to pay the city as required justified termination of the contract. Her colleagues agreed and voted to approve the new vendor.
Under the agreement, the city will get 5% of the vendor’s gross revenues. That’s expected to amount to about $1,000 to $1,200 per year during the three-year contract.
