The City of Parksville will take over co-ordination and management of the food trucks in the community park this spring and summer season.
Council approved a recommendation to have staff conduct a one-year pilot project and report back with an analysis at the end of the summer season.
The agreement between the city and the Parksville and District Chamber of Commerce expired in October, according to a report by Deb Tardiff, manager of communications, and city staff were directed to review the Parksville Community Park food truck program.
The Chamber co-ordinated mobile food services in the park from 2015 to 2024, except for a break in 2020.
“There were serious challenges, where our events co-ordinator actually stepped in and managed a lot of those challenges that happened last year," said Mayor Doug O'Brien, during council's Feb. 3 meeting. O'Brien added he was assured by city staff they have the time to co-ordinate the truck pads.
The city received complaints last year about a lack of dinner options at the community park food trucks, according to Tardiff.
"We heard that on many days, on quite a few days, there was just ice cream and donuts," she said. "Our plan is to schedule both, so there's a variety for people. Towards the end of last year, there was very limited food services in the community park."
The pilot will see city staff manage the food truck service's two main pads, with the possibility of additional revenue from a third truck or cart in a location such as the Gathering Plaza, Tardiff said.
“There will be some additional costs because there will be an enhanced level of waste disposal because the Chamber did that last year," she added.
The Parksville and District Chamber of Commerce did not reply to the PQB News' requests for comment.
Coun. Mary Beil, the city's liaison to the Chamber, said she reached out to the executive and was told the Chamber does not intend to make a request to manage the pads this year.
Previously the financial risk was borne by the outside operator, Coun. Joel Grenz said, and the city was essentially guaranteed a revenue from the pad rentals.
“And that revenue would be higher than the expenses of electricity, or at least not lower than that,” he added.
Coun. Adam Fras said he would rather see the city put out a request for proposal before committing to city staff running a pilot project.
Fras and Coun. Amit Gaur suggested potential third parties such as the Parksville Downtown Business Association and food truck operators forming their own group.
“It’s not our core function," Gaur said. "The city taking it on — I’m really reluctant to support something like this.”
Tardiff said her understanding is the Chamber is not interested in managing the food truck pads this year and would not respond to an RFP. She added she had not approached the PDBA and was not aware of food truck operators interested in managing the pads.
It would be difficult to put out an RFP, according to Chief Administrative Officer Keeva Kehler, since time is limited and the RFP would be complicated in that there would likely need to be one bid for booking time at a pad, and another for the overall management of the service.
She suggested staff could run the pilot project this season, which runs from May 1 to Sept. 30, and then bring recommendations to council, as well as determine if food truck operators are interested in forming a management group for next year.
Grenz said he supported the idea for this year given the time constraint, but would be "unlikely" to support it a second time.
“At the end of the day I’m kind of sad that it didn’t work out for the Chamber and so maybe next year, it could go back to them,” he added.
Council voted to have staff conduct the one-year pilot project, with Gaur and Fras opposed.
