MARYSVILLE — The owners and customers of the Cedarcrest Golf Course restaurant say if the city takes it over, everyone will be the poorer for it.
City officials say otherwise — that Marysville could earn more money running the restaurant to help pay down the debt on the buildings at the golf course, which the city owns.
City administrator Mary Swenson said restaurant owners Pat and Kathy Regan missed their deadline last fall to extend the lease. The city has told the couple they have to be out by the end of this month.
The couple has hired an attorney and filed a request for arbitration with the city, asking that they be allowed to continue to operate the restaurant.
“I’m trying to save all our workers’ jobs, my job, our livelihood,” said Kathy Regan, 47.
The Regans have run the restaurant for more than six years, and patrons say they would be sorely missed.
“It’s like they treat each customer as a friend,” said Sheryl Ramos of Marysville, a regular at the restaurant. “I don’t think the city could do that.”
City officials are saying little about their decision to get into the restaurant business, citing the legal action.
“The current restaurant arrangement is not paying the debt on the facility,” Swenson said in a brief written statement. “Changing direction in the operation of the restaurant will allow the city to redirect its focus on retiring that debt.”
About seven years ago, the city built a new pro shop, a new restaurant and made improvements to the course, built in 1927.
The city expects to be nearly $255,000 in the red for 2009 on the golf course, Swenson said. When debt on the buildings is removed from the arithmetic, the golf course operates in the black, she said.
Kathy Regan admitted she and her husband forgot about the Oct. 1 deadline to let the city know they were interested in renewing the lease, which ran out on Dec. 31.
“We work hard,” she said. “We didn’t even think.”
Regan pointed to a new $10,000 canopy for outdoor events and other improvements they paid for as evidence they intended to stay.
She said city officials told them that despite the oversight, the matter could be worked out. The couple’s attorney, Bob Henry of Seattle, said the same in the request for arbitration.
Swenson “assured the plaintiffs that they would end up continuing to occupy the premises” in the next lease period, the complaint reads.
“That’s not accurate,” Swenson responded in an e-mail. “I don’t have that authority.”
Henry said there is legal precedent for forgetting to renew a lease as an extenuating circumstance in requiring it be renewed.
Regan said the couple was told after missing the deadline that they could reapply to extend the lease, and they did so, she said. Then they were told without explanation on Feb. 17 that they were out and the city would take over the business, Regan said.
Henry filed the Regans’ request for arbitration with the city March 10. He said if the city doesn’t respond or refuses the request, he’ll file a lawsuit.
“I would expect that my clients will operate the restaurant until there’s an arbitration hearing and hopefully for five years after that,” Henry said.
The city has yet to respond.
“We are exploring our options,” Swenson said.
Regan said the restaurant turns a profit, partly by not paying for health insurance for the 12 to 15 year-round employees. Pat Regan makes his own pickups of food and supplies rather than paying for them to be delivered.
Kathy Regan said she believes the city would have a tougher time making a profit because city workers likely will require benefits packages and, since taxpayers will be the business’ owners, no individual will be able to put in the long hours that running a restaurant demands.
“I’m here 12 to 14 hours a day sometimes, six, seven days a week,” Regan said. “Who are they going to get to do that?”
Customers, many of whom are not golfers, said it’s the Regans, the food and the atmosphere at the restaurant that set it apart.
“You feel small-town,” Ramos said.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439, sheets@heraldnet.com.
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