A proposed concession stand raised questions about a business disconnect between the downtown and lakefront areas.

The city of Kenosha’s Board of Park Commissioners deferred action Monday on allowing Bean Grinders Coffee LLC to open a concession trailer at 57th Street and Third Avenue between mid-May and mid-October.

Bill Valenti — who along with his wife Donna owns Bean Grinders at 3915 52nd St. — wanted to open by the Fourth of July and sell coffee, smoothies, hot dogs and sandwiches.

“We want an opportunity to be on the lakefront,” Valenti said.

The city previously approved two concession trailers at that same site, one selling ice cream and the other selling pitas, owned by father and son James and Alex Shehadeh. Those stands opened in recent weeks and Alex Shehadeh said he would be “ecstatic” for another vendor to draw more business.

A number of downtown business owners expressed concern about more temporary businesses near the lake.

Jennifer Heim, owner of Scoops Ice Cream and Heim’s Downtown Toy Store and vice president-elect of the Lakeshore Business Improvement District (BID), said she did not believe the area had the density to support a concession stand like the Valentis proposed. She noted the downtown area is nearly 60 percent vacant.

Joe Dora, owner of the Best Western Harborside Inn, said it was important to strengthen Kenosha’s downtown business community.

“The health of a community is based on the health of the downtown,” Dora said.

Lewis Aceto, owner of S.J. Crystal’s Men’s Store, agreed. “Right now, we have to focus on downtown,” he said.

Others spoke about the lack of connection between the city’s lakefront and downtown business areas.

“We really need to bridge the gap between the lakefront and downtown,” Carolyn Kirkby, owner of Carolyn’s Coffee, said.

Alderman Steve Casey said he was concerned about creating two separate neighborhoods as the HarborPark area developed. He advocates placing the Kenosha HarborMarket on Sixth Avenue instead of its current HarborPark location.

He said said the city needed to consider guidelines for concession operations.

“I hesitate moving forward with any other vendors down there without coming up with a policy or a plan,” Casey said. “We need to take a real hard look at what we do.”

Alderman Michael Orth, chairman of the commission, said the board might not have fully comprehended the issue when members approved the current lakefront vendors.

“We didn’t know all of the issues that came up around this,” Orth said. “We need to better understand how we are going to work with the people involved.”

The commission deferred action on the application for two weeks and asked the city to look at a policy about the issues discussed on Monday before that next meeting.

“There is some real value to the discussion of how we develop downtown,” Orth said.