by Evelyn Pyburn
On Tuesday, County Commissioners approved a contract with Venue Solutions Group (VSG) that includes a search for a general manager for MetraPark.
The contract approval follows a discussion meeting a couple weeks ago, about whether to pursue such a search or to save the money and to permanently make interim manager Tim Goodridge the manager. Members of the Metra Park Advisory Board previously met with County Commissioners, John Ostlund and Mark Morse, to suggest that Goodridge as interim manager has done so well that there is no need to do a national search.
During the regular weekly meeting on Tuesday, apparently aware of the county commissioners’ final decision, Metra Park Advisory Board Chairman Mike Mayott told Commissioners John Ostlund and Mark Morse (Don Jones was absent) that the MetraPark Board supported their decision. Interim Manager Goodridge also spoke before the commissioners to say that he too would be supportive of their decision and “hoped to emerge as the top candidate.”
Later, Ostlund told Yellowstone County News that during the earlier discussion meeting, he took the comments of the Advisory Board “to heart.” He said that he asked Kevan Bryan, Finance Director, to get information from VSG about how the search would be conducted.
Ostlund said that he worked directly with the Advisory Board Chairman Mayott to answer questions about the process. Following those conversations, Ostlund said that he believes everyone is now in agreement. “The Metra board, I believe, is satisfied and agrees with Mike that any and all questions the advisory board had were answered.”
VSG will first do the manager search and make sure the job description is up to date, and then engage in the second phase of their proposal to develop policies and “how the GM reports to the BOCC which has never been clearly defined.”
Ostlund further reported that they made permanent the interim appointment of Mike Groscop as the food service manager at MetraPark. And, “We are working on a refined job description for the catering department position to make it permanent, and, I believe, we have a marketing manager posted internally.”
