EKU-affiliated Arlington Club cuts dining service

The Arlington Club, a private country club in Richmond geared primarily toward Eastern Kentucky University alumni, is revamping its services.

In the wake of declining use, the EKU Foundation, which owns the facility, is closing the club's fine dining and clubhouse services.

The club will continue to offer golf, tennis and swimming, and the dining facilities will be open for special events.

"Quite frankly, with the downturn in the economy, people are not eating out as much," said Thomas H. Coffey, director of the EKU Foundation board. "We just had expenses in excess of our revenues and elected to terminate that aspect of the club."

Last week, the organization terminated nearly 30 full-time and part-time employees who staffed the club's dining services, Coffey said.

"It's very, very expensive to maintain that when very, very few people were using it," he said.

Future special events such Mother's Day and Thanksgiving meals, and catered events will be outsourced to a third-party caterer. Coffey said the foundation hopes to have a contract signed with a caterer this week.

The club also will serve concessions at its golf and swimming facilities.

"None of that will change," he said. "None of the staff responsible for caring for the grounds and the golf course have changed."

There will be no change to dues for members, which include EKU alumni, staff and the general public.

"We're going to look at that and see from a marketing standpoint if we can attract more and younger people to come in with families who aren't as interested in fine dining as they are in other aspects of the club," Coffey said. "But no additional changes have been made."

This story was originally published February 6, 2012 at 4:59 PM with the headline "EKU-affiliated Arlington Club cuts dining service."