“We should have physically more money than we do,” Hayden said at the regular DIB meeting. “We have to have better cash management.”
DIB director Dutch Sanger said the DIB made $7,263 on beer last Friday but he said they should have made about $7,500. The group spent $3,380 on 33 kegs of beer: 19 kegs of Budweiser and Bud
Light at $89, six kegs of Michelob Ultra at $99, five kegs of Bass at $129 and three kegs of Goose Island Honkers Ale at $150.
With the DIB’s prices — $3.50 for Bud and Bud Light, $4 for Michelob Ultra, $4.50 for Bass and $5.50 per 24 ounce glass — had the DIB sold every ounce of every keg, at 1,985 ounces per keg, the group should have made about $10,709. However, Hayden said the group only sold 25.5 kegs out of those 33.
Sanger said waste was the problem either from the vendors at each of the booths, manned by volunteer groups working for tips, and from too many kegs being tapped. The DIB stops tapping kegs at 9 p.m. Sanger said.
The solution accepted by the board is having subcontracted security personnel periodically collect money per empty keg during the event. Sanger said this was the previous policy but it had been stopped with money staying with one person for too long. Sanger said he does not handle any of the beer-sales money.
The DIB also discussed moving beer vendors from the corner of Fourth Street and Harrison Avenue to Beach Drive and Harrison and the vendor on Fifth Street and Harrison Avenue next to the former Marie Hotel building at 490 Harrison Ave. Commissioner John Kady had asked the DIB to move vendors away from downtown bars and restaurants as a condition of him voting to approve beer on the street permits for merchants.
The DIB did not reach a consensus on that request, with three downtown restaurant owners saying they are not affected by beer sales. Hayden said he was going to make the request for street permits at the commission meeting on Tuesday with vendors staying where they are.