Councilman Place 3 Tom Scherlen cast the first vote of term for the newly elected city council during a meeting held on Tuesday.

The item, listed on the agenda as item 9.B., was a $79,795 purchase of a concession trailer for the Santa Fe Depot Pavilion. It was originally on the agenda for a previous council meeting but was pushed without opposition by Scherlen. The item was presented by Bo Fowlkes, general manager of the Amarillo Civic Center.

“The concession trailer allows us the opportunity and gets us running much quicker on being able to provide concession services” at the new Santa Fe Depot Pavilion, said Fowlkes. “We’ve already had many discussions with some promotors and some events that are upcoming. […] There’s no other way for us to provide concessions at that location at this time.”

According to city staff, the reason the concession trailer would be needed to provide concessions is because the current concessions contract for the civic center, which is held by Corkscrew Foods includes the new Santa Fe Depot Pavilion.

“A trailer is a short term solution to a long term problem,” countered Scherlen, who noted that the city also has plans to build a building on the east side of the facility for restrooms and to serve alcoholic beverages. Scherlen pushed for the city to look into expanding those plans to include food service instead of purchasing a trailer. “You could probably build it for the same money you’re talking about [using to] buy a trailer.”

“No, you couldn’t,” responded City Manager Jared Miller. “Not the way we’re envisioning it.”

Scherlen also questioned the wisdom of buying a trailer with a limited lifespan instead of adding food service to the planned restroom and bar service building. However, when Scherlen inquired about the life expectancy of the trailer, Fowlkes appeared to dodge the question, choosing to instead talk about how quickly a trailer could be up and running compared to the new building. Scherlen later expressed skepticism regarding the timeline for receiving the trailer. “It probably won’t be here in October, probably more like November.”

Mayor Cole Stanley stated he was encouraged by the lively debate regarding the item, noting that “it is not a large amount of money when you’re talking about the city organization on the dollar amount.” However, he also noted that he disagreed with Scherlen’s perspective on the item. “He [Scherlen] may be knee-jerking it a little bit,” said Stanley.

The item eventually passed with a 4:1 vote, with Scherlen being the only vote against. The contract was awarded to Phoenix Contracting.