ABC loses State Fair contract

Since the first term of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, one organization – the American Business Club of Springfield – has volunteered to serve beer and other concessions at the Illinois State Fair, with their share of money earned funding grants to dozens of local charities. For the first time since 1954, ABC will no longer occupy that role.

Another group of local veterans, the Combined Veterans Association, lost their contract to operate a beer and beverage tent as well, after more than 50 years of service. Like ABC, the group is a volunteer organization, and the sales from the State Fair provide the sole operating income for many veterans’ organizations.

Such services will now be performed by Nelson’s Catering, based at 3005 Great Northern Ave. in Springfield, which received a new, two-year vendor contract from the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

“We are excited for the opportunity,” Nelson’s Catering spokesperson Mindy Beeler said. “We feel like we’re in a great position to provide that service.”

While Beeler said “the contracts aren’t officially finalized yet,” state records obtained by Illinois Times show a “notice of award” given to Nelson’s Catering to “to run the beer garden tents at the grandstand and multipurpose arena during the Illinois State Fair.”

The contract stipulates that Nelson’s will “provide the (Illinois Department of Agriculture) with 21% of gross sales of all drinks sold pursuant to this contract. Gross sales shall include tax and any transaction fee.”

ABC submitted a bid of 15% back to IDOA, and previous bids usually ranged from 11% to 14% said Kevin Lust, one of the chairs of ABC’s Admission Project at the fair, who has volunteered with ABC every year since 1996. Through the years, ABC has donated the bulk of its share of proceeds to dozens of charities, which Lust said has amounted to $5.5 million overall. He said the 300-plus-member ABC is not happy over the loss of the vendor contract.

“We handed out more than $150,000 to charities last year as part of our proceeds from our grandstand concessions contract. And, that goes away, because the money is now going to a for-profit entity,” said Lust. “Everything we did out there, we used volunteers and not for profit.”

ABC does still have a contract with the fair to run the admissions gates, which it has done since 2004, and Lust said ABC will continue to donate the bulk of proceeds from that contract to local charities. Lust said ABC donated about $130,000 to charities last year from its gate admissions contract.

When asked if Nelson’s Catering will continue ABC’s tradition of donating a large share of proceeds to charities, Beeler told Illinois Times, “At this time, that’s not really for me to comment on, but we are very active in giving back to this community, and that will definitely be part of the scope of what we do there.”

Nelson’s Catering has given more than $100,000 to local organizations from proceeds of catering large fundraising events, according to the company’s website.

Why did IDOA switch from a vendor that had been providing service for the past 71 years? A larger share of money would seem to be the most obvious answer, but will that be worth the potential bad public relations?

Lori Harlan, public affairs officer at IDOA provided the following written statement in response to an inquiry from Illinois Times: “As a state agency, the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Illinois State Fair, is statutorily required to follow the Illinois Procurement Code. The Procurement Code declares it state policy that agencies follow competitive bidding processes for purchases and contracts.”

ABC president Trent Thompson tried to strike a diplomatic tone.

“It’s a disappointment. It’ll hurt us, kind of, but, really, it hurts our community,” Thompson said. “We’ve taken all those funds that we’ve earned in that time and have given to the community.”

Those charitable organizations had to “earn it, and still have to apply” for grants from ABC, Thompson said, but “they’re going to miss out on an opportunity to get some funding that will help them continue with some of the programs they do.

“At the same time, we’ve just got to buckle down and say, ‘Hey, what do we do next and how do we continue to focus toward getting to our mission? It’s gonna be tough, but we’ll figure something out. But, yes, it was kind of a shock to us.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to remove the reference to ATOLLetc, which is a separate entity from the nonprofit Combined Veterans Association.