The Northern Kentucky Port Authority’s Board of Directors selected a new front desk provider at their meeting last week: Cincinnati-based security company NSG, Inc.
The move comes two months after the board considered locking the doors to the OneNKY Center in Covington, which the port authority owns and where it operates. Previously, the building had front desk services from meetNKY, the region’s tourism bureau. MeetNKY will continue to provide services for event and meeting rooms in the building at no cost, but NSG will man the desk. The board had voted to seek contract proposals in August.
Conversations from two months ago indicated that port authority staff were concerned about a lack of consistent monitoring of the front door if MeetNKY pulled out altogether. Discussions at this week’s meeting of the board, however, indicated that the new front desk attendant would man the desk from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., when the front door to the building is open.
“The (request for proposals) was focused on a hospitality service,” said Port Authority Executive Director Christine Russell. “The scope was primarily there to welcome visitors, answer questions and check in contractors.”
The business tenants within the building still need to approve the deal before the new arrangement is finalized, but Russell said the cost of the new contract would be a wash for the tenants. The building had previously paid meetNKY $65,000 for its front-end services, roughly the same cost as the front desk attendant provided in NSG’s proposal, $65,216.