LNP’s front page article “Manheim Township to get into restaurant business?” goes on to report:
“The township, which already owns and runs a golf course, driving range, swimming pools and roller rink, may soon re-open Barny’s Grill, housed in a 250-year-old barn on the Overlook Community Campus, with all the bartenders, cooks and wait staff on the township payroll.
“Other facilities on the campus, including the Sand Trap snack bar at the golf course and the Barn at Overlook, a wedding venue, also could be staffed by township employees after the private restaurant group that ran the facilities for nearly a decade fell behind on its rent and decided to pull out.
“The township is waiting for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to sign off on a liquor licensee transfer and is developing a budget and staffing plan, said Dave Heck, chairman of the board of commissioners.”
We are stunned by the notion of a township entering into the operation of restaurant, banquet and catering facilities.
This requires hands-on management, specialized skill, years of experience, and endless work weeks. The township doesn’t qualify in any of these respects.
The Food and Beverage department is usually the bane of operators of full service hotels. F & B departments often suffer a large loss that has to be offset from room sales earnings.
That is one of the reason for the growths of Holiday Inn Expresses, Fairfield Inns, and Hampton Inns. They provide a relatively simple to produce breakfast buffet and have no restaurants.
If the township cannot find a qualified tenant operator, then they should take this as a message that the restaurants, banquets and catering are not economically viable. Or maybe they need to offer more generous concessions and possibly even subsidies.
Operating a health club and golf course requires little labor and not that much skill. Running F & B operations is many times more complex and subject to poor management, employee theft, customer dissatisfaction, and large losses.
The Manhiem Township tax payers have enough things to pay for without providing glamorous play things for township managers and facilities for well-to-do golf players and the upper crust.
It’s all pretty comical considering the M.T. school district has to charge students for their extra-curricular activities.